La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.

The teacher gently corrects my summary.

Breakdown of La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.

• mon: my
• corriger: to correct
• doucement: gently
• le résumé: the summary
• la professeure: the professor

Questions & Answers about La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.

Why is it la professeure and not le professeur?

In traditional French, professeur is grammatically masculine, even when talking about a woman, so you would say:

• le professeur – for a male or female teacher (traditional/neutral form)

However, in more and more contexts (especially in schools, government, and media), people create clearly feminine forms for professions. So:

• la professeure – explicitly indicates a female teacher

Both are correct in modern French, but style and region matter:

• In many places, la professeure is now preferred in writing when the teacher is female.
• You will still hear le professeur used for women, especially among older speakers or in more conservative contexts.

If it’s a female teacher, why isn’t it la professeur (just changing the article)?

Some speakers do say or write la professeur, using the masculine noun with a feminine article. That exists in real usage.

However, many style guides and official recommendations now prefer making a clearly feminine noun:

• Masculine: un professeur
• Feminine: une professeure

So you’ll see:

• la professeur (feminine article + masculine noun) – common in speech, feels more traditional.
• la professeure (feminine article + feminine noun) – more in line with current “feminization of job titles.”

The sentence you have follows this newer pattern.

How is corrige formed, and what tense is it?

Corrige is:

• Verb: corriger (to correct, to mark)
• Tense: présent de l’indicatif (present simple)
• Person: 3rd person singular (il/elle/on)

Conjugation in the present:

• je corrige
• tu corriges
• il/elle/on corrige
• nous corrigeons
• vous corrigez
• ils/elles corrigent

It corresponds to both:

• “The teacher corrects my summary.”
• “The teacher is correcting my summary.”

French uses the simple present for both meanings; it does not normally use a continuous form like English.

Why isn’t there a continuous form like “is correcting” (e.g. est corrigeant)?

French does not have a grammatical continuous/progressive tense like English.

• English distinguishes: “she corrects” vs “she is correcting”.
• French usually uses just the simple present: elle corrige for both.

You might sometimes see être en train de + infinitive to emphasize “in the middle of doing”:

• La professeure est en train de corriger mon résumé.
  = The teacher is in the process of correcting my summary.

But forms like est corrigeant are ungrammatical in standard French.

Where does the adverb doucement normally go, and could I move it?

In this sentence:

• La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.

Doucement is an adverb modifying the verb corrige, so the most natural place is right after the verb.

Other possibilities:

1. La professeure corrige mon résumé doucement.
   Still correct; focuses slightly more on how the résumé is corrected.

2. La professeure, doucement, corrige mon résumé.
   Possible in writing; adds a stylistic pause or emphasis.

3. Doucement, la professeure corrige mon résumé.
   Also correct; puts strong emphasis on the manner (“gently/slowly”).

What you generally don’t do is split verb and object in an odd way in everyday speech, like:

• ✗ La professeure doucement corrige mon résumé. (sounds off in neutral speech)

Does doucement mean “slowly” or “gently”? How should I understand it here?

Doucement can mean both, depending on context:

1. Gently / softly / carefully

   • Parle doucement. = Speak softly/gently.
   • With corriger, this often suggests tact, kindness, or care.

2. Slowly

   • Va doucement. = Go slowly.

In La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé, it could mean:

• She is correcting it gently (not harsh, considerate), or
• She is correcting it slowly, taking her time.

Context (tone, situation) would clarify which nuance is intended.

Why is it mon résumé and not ma résumé?

In French, possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mes) agree with the gender and number of the noun, not with the possessor.

• résumé is a masculine singular noun: un résumé
• Therefore: mon résumé (my summary)

Compare:

• mon livre (my book – masculine singular)
• ma lettre (my letter – feminine singular)
• mes livres / mes lettres (my books / my letters – plural)

But résumé ends in -é; why is it masculine?

Spelling endings in French do not reliably determine gender. Many masculine nouns end in -é, for example:

• un café
• un marché
• un côté
• un lycée
• un été

And many feminine nouns also end in -é (especially with silent -ée):

• une idée
• une allée
• une armée

You simply have to learn le résumé (masculine) as vocabulary. There’s no clear rule from the ending alone.

Is un résumé the same as the English “résumé” (CV)?

No, this is a classic false friend.

In French:

• un résumé = a summary, a shortened version of a text, film, etc.
• un CV (un curriculum vitæ) = a résumé in the English job-application sense.

So:

• La professeure corrige mon résumé.
  → The teacher is correcting my summary, not my job CV.

For “She is correcting my résumé (for a job)” in French:

• Elle corrige mon CV.

Could I use lentement instead of doucement? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• La professeure corrige lentement mon résumé.

Lentement focuses on slowness in time:

• She is correcting it slowly, taking a long time.

Doucement is broader:

• Can mean slowly, but also gently, softly, carefully, not harshly.

So:

• doucement often has an emotional/attitudinal nuance (kind, gentle).
• lentement is mainly about speed.

Could I say ma professeure instead of la professeure?

Yes, and it changes the meaning slightly:

• La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.
  = The teacher (some specific teacher, known from context) is correcting my summary.

• Ma professeure corrige doucement mon résumé.
  = My teacher is correcting my summary.

Use ma when you want to emphasize that this is your teacher.
Use la when the context already makes clear which teacher you’re talking about (e.g. in a story, or when there is only one teacher in focus).

Does corriger here mean “correct” or “mark/grade” a piece of work?

Corriger can mean both:

1. To correct / fix mistakes

   • Elle corrige les fautes. = She corrects the mistakes.

2. To mark / grade (a teacher correcting students’ work)

   • Le prof corrige les copies. = The teacher is marking the exam papers.

In La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé, it likely means:

• She is going through your summary, fixing mistakes and/or marking it.
  Context (classroom, homework, tests) decides whether we imagine grading, feedback, or simple error correction.

Are there any special pronunciation points in La professeure corrige doucement mon résumé?

A few:

• professeure: the final -e is written but not pronounced; it sounds like [pʁɔ.fɛ.sœʁ].
• corrige: the -ge gives a soft [ʒ] sound: [kɔ.ʁiʒ].
• doucement: often pronounced something like [dus.mɑ̃]; the -ent at the end is silent.
• résumé: both é are pronounced [e] (closed “ay” sound): [ʁe.zy.me].

No obligatory liaison between corrige and doucement; you just go from [ʒ] to [d] smoothly.