Breakdown of Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers dans le salon.
Questions & Answers about Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers dans le salon.
Both are about sorting, but:
trier = to sort in a straightforward, literal way.
- Je dois trier mes papiers. = I have to sort my papers.
faire le tri = to go through things and sort them out, often with the idea of selecting, keeping, throwing away, organizing.
- Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers. = I have to go through my papers and sort them out.
Faire le tri sounds a bit more idiomatic and often implies you have a mess and need to organize/declutter it, not just put things in categories.
In French, many abstract nouns need an article (un, une, le, la, etc.), even when English wouldn’t use one.
- tri (sorting) almost always takes an article:
- faire le tri = literally “to do the sorting”
You wouldn’t normally say faire tri; it sounds wrong to native speakers. The expression is faire le tri as a fixed phrase.
In French, when you specify what you’re sorting as a noun phrase, you usually use de after faire le tri:
- faire le tri de mes papiers
- faire le tri de mes vêtements
- faire le tri de mes mails
So the pattern is: faire le tri de + [thing you’re sorting].
Without de, faire le tri mes papiers is grammatically incorrect.
Yes, absolutely.
- Je dois trier mes papiers.
- Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers.
Both are correct and natural.
Trier mes papiers is slightly more direct and neutral.
Faire le tri de mes papiers can sound a bit more like going through a pile of things, choosing what to keep or throw away, organizing them. In everyday speech, both are common.
Papiers can mean:
- Loose papers in general (bills, letters, notes, etc.)
- Official documents (ID card, passport, car registration, etc.)
In this sentence, mes papiers most naturally means my documents / paperwork—things like bills, forms, letters, statements—especially because you’re “going through them” and sorting them.
Context would decide whether it’s more “random sheets of paper” or “official documents,” but in many cases, it’s a mix of both.
Devoir has two main uses:
Obligation / necessity (no preposition before the verb):
- Je dois faire le tri. = I have to / must sort things out.
To owe (money or something) (followed by a direct object, or sometimes à for the person):
- Je dois 20 euros à Paul. = I owe Paul 20 euros.
In your sentence, it’s the obligation meaning, so you use:
- Je dois + infinitive = I have to + verb
→ Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers.
Both express obligation, but with different nuances:
Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers.
→ I have to / must sort my papers.
This is very direct and personal: I have to.Il faut que je fasse le tri de mes papiers.
→ I need to / I really should sort my papers.
This is more impersonal in form (literally “It is necessary that I…”) and uses the subjunctive (fasse). It can sound a bit lighter or more subjective, like a strong recommendation or necessity.
In everyday speech, both are used. Je dois + infinitive is simpler and very common.
- dans le salon = in the living room (of the house you’re in / your home, by default)
- dans mon salon = in my living room (explicitly yours)
- au salon has other meanings:
- a trade show / fair: au salon de l’auto (at the car show)
- a hairdresser’s salon: au salon de coiffure
For a house’s living room, the natural preposition is dans:
- Je suis dans le salon. = I’m in the living room.
- Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers dans le salon. = I have to sort my papers in the living room.
No. Salon has several meanings:
- Living room in a house/apartment.
- Salon as in a hair salon: un salon de coiffure.
- Trade fair / show: un salon du livre, un salon de l’agriculture.
- Sometimes a formal drawing room or reception room in large, older houses or palaces.
In your sentence, with dans le salon in a home context, it clearly means living room.
No, there is no liaison between dois and faire here.
Pronunciation:
- Je dois faire le tri ≈ zhuh dwa fer luh tree
Liaisons usually happen when the first word ends in a normally silent consonant that is pronounced because the next word starts with a vowel sound (for example: je dois aller → je dwa-z-aller).
Here, faire starts with a consonant [f], so no liaison: dois just ends in a vowel sound.
Faire le tri is neutral and very common. You can use it:
- In everyday conversation:
- Je vais faire le tri de mes vêtements.
- In slightly more formal contexts:
- Il est nécessaire de faire le tri des dossiers.
It’s not slang, and it doesn’t sound stiff either. It’s a standard expression.
Yes, Je dois faire le tri dans mes papiers is also used and understood.
- faire le tri de mes papiers
- faire le tri dans mes papiers
They’re very close in meaning. Dans mes papiers can suggest going through your papers (inside that “mass” of papers), while de mes papiers focuses more directly on sorting the group called “my papers”.
In practice, both sound natural; de mes papiers is slightly more standard.
Pattern: [subject] + devoir (conjugated) + faire le tri de [something]
Examples in the present tense:
- Je dois faire le tri de mes papiers.
- Tu dois faire le tri de tes papiers.
- Il/Elle/On doit faire le tri de ses papiers.
- Nous devons faire le tri de nos papiers.
- Vous devez faire le tri de vos papiers.
- Ils/Elles doivent faire le tri de leurs papiers.
The rest of the structure (faire le tri de…) stays the same; only devoir and the possessive adjective (mes, tes, ses, etc.) change with the subject.