Learn Hardcore French: Aujourd'hui, j'écris la lettre à la main.

It comes historically from au jour d’hui = on the day of today.
- au = on the
- jour = day
- d’ = of
- hui = today (old word, no longer used by itself)

Over time, au jour d’hui fused into aujourd’hui. The apostrophe is between d and hui purely for historical reasons; you should just treat aujourd’hui as the standard word for today.

At the beginning of a sentence, it’s capitalized: Aujourd’hui, …
In the middle of a sentence, it’s normally lowercase: Je travaille aujourd’hui.

Do I need the comma after Aujourd'hui?

The comma is optional but very common and stylistically natural.

With comma (as in your sentence):
Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à la main.
This is the most usual written form.
Without comma:
Aujourd’hui j’écris la lettre à la main.
Still correct, just a bit more fluid and informal.

So you can safely keep the comma; it’s often used after a time expression placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Why is it j’écris and not je écris?

In French, when je comes before a verb beginning with a vowel sound, it almost always contracts to j’. This is called elision.

je
- écris → j’écris
Other examples:
- j’aime (je aime)
- j’habite (je habite)
- j’étudie (je étudie)

The contraction makes pronunciation smoother and is obligatory in standard French in cases like this. So je écris is incorrect; you must say j’écris.

What tense is j’écris and how does it compare to English?

J’écris is present tense, first person singular of the verb écrire (to write).

It can correspond to two English forms, depending on context:

I write the letter by hand (habitual or general statement)
I am writing the letter by hand (now/today) (current action)

French doesn’t have a separate present continuous tense like English. The simple present (j’écris) is used both for:

general/habitual actions
actions happening right now or today, if the context (like aujourd’hui) makes it clear.

If you really want to insist on “I’m in the middle of doing it right now”, you can also say:

Aujourd’hui, je suis en train d’écrire la lettre à la main.
(Literally: I am in the process of writing the letter by hand.)

How is écrire conjugated in the present? What are the forms related to j’écris?

Écrire is an irregular verb. In the present tense:

j’écris – I write / I am writing
tu écris – you write (singular, informal)
il / elle / on écrit – he / she / one writes
nous écrivons – we write
vous écrivez – you write (plural or formal)
ils / elles écrivent – they write

Notice the difference between écris (I/you) and écrit (he/she/one):

j’écris – I write
il écrit – he writes

The spelling and endings change with the subject pronoun.

Why is it la lettre and not une lettre or just lettre with no article?

French almost always needs an article before a singular countable noun.

la lettre = the letter
You are talking about a specific, known letter (for example, one both speakers know about).
une lettre = a letter
You are talking about some letter, not yet identified or not important which one.
lettre with no article is generally wrong in this context. In French, you can’t usually omit the article the way English sometimes does.

So your sentence means:

Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à la main.
→ Today, I’m writing *the letter by hand* (a particular letter that’s already in the shared context).

If you wanted to say “Today I’m writing *a letter by hand”*, you’d say:

Aujourd’hui, j’écris une lettre à la main.

Why is it la lettre (feminine)? How do I know the gender?

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender, masculine or feminine. Lettre is feminine, so it uses the article la.

Unfortunately, gender is often arbitrary and must be memorized with each noun:

la lettre – the letter (feminine)
le livre – the book (masculine)

Some endings tend to be feminine; many nouns ending in -e are feminine, and -tre spelled -tre (lettre, fenêtre, montre) are often feminine, but there are exceptions (le théâtre is masculine).

The safest habit: always learn noun + article together, e.g.:

une lettre, la lettre — then you will remember it’s feminine.

Why does à la main mean “by hand”? Why not par la main or avec la main?

In French, the preposition à is commonly used to express the manner or means of doing something. À la main is the standard idiomatic way to say by hand (not using a machine, computer, or printer).

écrire à la main = to write by hand
cousu à la main = hand‑sewn
lavé à la main = hand‑washed

Other prepositions would sound wrong or at least not idiomatic here:

par la main – not used to mean “by hand”
avec la main – would sound like “with the hand” in a very literal, physical sense, not the usual idiomatic expression.

So the fixed, natural phrase is à la main for by hand.

Can I omit the article and say à main instead of à la main?

No. In this expression, the article la is required:

✅ à la main
❌ à main

Main is a normal noun (la main = the hand), and in this fixed expression the full noun phrase la main must be used with the article.

Compare:

à la main gauche = with/by the left hand
fait à la main = handmade

Leaving out la here would sound ungrammatical to native speakers.

Can I put aujourd’hui or à la main in other places in the sentence?

Yes. French word order is somewhat flexible for time and manner expressions.

All of the following are correct, with slightly different emphasis:

Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à la main.
(Neutral; emphasis on today.)
J’écris la lettre à la main aujourd’hui.
(Emphasis on today as the time you’re doing it.)
Aujourd’hui, j’écris à la main la lettre.
(Possible, but less natural; word order around la lettre feels a bit heavy.)
J’écris aujourd’hui la lettre à la main.
(Also possible; a bit literary/formal in feel.)

The most natural everyday versions would be 1 and 2.
The internal order [subject] + [verb] + [direct object] + [manner/time] is very common:

J’écris la lettre à la main aujourd’hui.

How do you pronounce the whole sentence? Are there any silent letters or liaisons?

Pronunciation in IPA (standard French):

Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à la main.
/o.ʒuʁ.dɥi ʒe.kʁi la lɛtʁ a la mɛ̃/

Key points:

Aujourd’hui
- The final -i is pronounced; the t is silent.
- d’hui is pronounced /dɥi/ (like “d‑hwee”).
j’écris
- The s in écris is silent: /ʒe.kʁi/.
la lettre
- The final -e in lettre is not pronounced; -tre is /tʁ/.
à la main
- main is nasal: /mɛ̃/ (like “meh” with air going through the nose).
- No liaison between lettre and à; you don’t pronounce the -e or add a /t/ sound.

There is no required liaison between Aujourd’hui and j’écris either; you just say them one after the other.

Could I say something else instead of à la main, like with a computer?

Yes, you can replace à la main with other expressions that indicate the means:

à l’ordinateur – on the computer
- Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à l’ordinateur.
sur l’ordinateur – also “on the computer” (focus more on the physical device)
- Je tape la lettre sur l’ordinateur.
à la machine – with a machine (often an old‑fashioned typewriter context)
- Elle tape ses lettres à la machine.

Notice that for typing rather than handwriting, French often uses taper (to type) rather than écrire, although écrire à l’ordinateur is heard too.

What’s the difference between la lettre and cette lettre in this sentence?

Both refer to a specific letter, but the nuance is slightly different:

la lettre = the letter
Specific, already known in context, but not explicitly pointed at.
cette lettre = this letter / that letter
More explicitly pointing to a particular letter (maybe one you’re holding or have just mentioned clearly).

So:

Aujourd’hui, j’écris la lettre à la main.
→ Today I’m writing the letter by hand (the one we’ve been talking about).
Aujourd’hui, j’écris cette lettre à la main.
→ Today I’m writing this (particular) letter by hand (stronger emphasis on “this one, not some other letter”).