Breakdown of Chaque mois, je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne.
Questions & Answers about Chaque mois, je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne.
In French, mettre de l’argent sur un compte is a very common, everyday way to say “to put/deposit money into an account.”
- Mettre literally means “to put”, so je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne is literally “I put a bit of money on my savings account.”
- You can use more “financial” verbs:
- j’épargne un peu d’argent = I save a bit of money (general saving, not necessarily into an account)
- je dépose de l’argent sur mon compte = I deposit money into my account (more formal/banking)
- The original sentence sounds very natural and spoken; mettre de l’argent sur un compte is what many French speakers say in everyday life.
Literally, mettre de l’argent sur un compte means “to put money on an account.” It’s the normal idiomatic way to say “put money in your account” in French.
Very close alternatives include:
- déposer de l’argent sur un compte – to deposit money into an account (a bit more formal or banking language)
- virer de l’argent sur un compte – to transfer money into an account (specifically by bank transfer)
- mettre de l’argent de côté – to put money aside (to save, not necessarily specifying an account)
- épargner de l’argent – to save money (more general, not tied to a specific account)
The original sentence focuses on the action of putting money into that particular savings account.
After expressions of quantity like un peu, French almost always uses de (or d’ before a vowel) without an article:
- un peu de sucre – a little sugar
- un peu d’eau – a little water
- un peu d’argent – a little money
So:
- un peu d’argent is the normal, general form: “a bit of money.”
- un peu de l’argent would be understood as “a little of that money / the money” (referring to some specific, already-identified money) and is much less common.
In this generic sentence, we’re talking about money in general, so un peu d’argent is correct.
That d’ is just de that has been shortened (elision) in front of a word starting with a vowel sound.
- de + argent → d’argent
- de + épargne → d’épargne
French generally avoids having two vowel sounds clash, so de becomes d’ in front of:
- vowels: a, e, i, o, u
- silent h (e.g. d’habitude)
So the structure is:
- un peu de + argent → un peu d’argent
- compte de + épargne → compte d’épargne
Because compte is masculine in French: un compte, not une compte.
Possessive adjectives must agree with the gender and number of the noun, not with the person who owns it.
So:
- mon compte – my account (masculine, singular)
- ma maison – my house (feminine, singular)
- mes comptes – my accounts (plural)
Even though “account” in English has no gender, in French you must remember compte = masculine, so mon compte.
Compte d’épargne means savings account. It’s specifically for saving money, often with some interest, and sometimes with limits on withdrawals or special rules.
Other related terms:
- un compte courant / un compte chèque – a current/checking account, used for everyday transactions
- un compte bancaire – a bank account in general (could be savings, checking, etc.)
So mon compte d’épargne is specifically “my savings account,” not just any bank account.
With bank accounts, French normally uses the preposition sur:
- mettre de l’argent sur un compte – to put money in an account
- avoir de l’argent sur son compte – to have money in one’s account
This can feel strange to English speakers, because English uses “in”, but in French you almost always say sur un compte, not dans un compte.
Dans mon compte sounds unnatural in this context; sur mon compte is the idiomatic expression.
Both chaque mois and tous les mois usually translate to “every month”, and in many situations they’re interchangeable.
Small nuance:
- chaque mois – slightly more individualizing: “each month,” seen one by one
- tous les mois – slightly more collective/habitual: “all the months / every month (as a habit)”
In everyday speech, the difference is subtle.
Both:
- Chaque mois, je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne.
- Tous les mois, je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne. sound natural and mean essentially the same thing here.
No, it doesn’t have to be at the beginning. You can move chaque mois without changing the meaning much:
- Chaque mois, je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne.
- Je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne chaque mois.
Both are correct and natural.
Putting chaque mois at the beginning gives it a little more emphasis on the frequency; putting it at the end is very common in spoken French.
The comma after Chaque mois is optional, but common.
French often uses a comma after an introductory time expression:
- Chaque matin, je bois un café.
- Le week-end, je me lève plus tard.
You could write:
- Chaque mois je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne. (no comma)
and it would still be correct. The comma mainly reflects a small pause in speech.
Mettre (to put, to put on) is irregular. In the present tense:
- je mets
- tu mets
- il/elle/on met
- nous mettons
- vous mettez
- ils/elles mettent
Spelling trap:
- It is je mets with an s, not je met.
- Pronunciation: je mets and il met sound the same; the final s in mets is silent.
So in the sentence, je mets is the correct 1st person singular form in the present.
Yes, you can say:
- Chaque mois, j’épargne un peu d’argent.
This means “Every month, I save a bit of money.”
Difference in tone:
- je mets un peu d’argent sur mon compte d’épargne emphasizes the physical/technical action of putting money into a specific account.
- j’épargne un peu d’argent emphasizes the idea of saving money, without specifying how (cash, account, etc.).
Both are correct; the original version is a bit more concrete and typical when talking about putting money into a savings account.