Learn Hardcore French: Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir. - We are eating the rest of the bread tonight.

Why does French use the present tense nous mangeons when in English I would say we will eat / we’re going to eat the rest of the bread tonight?

In French, the present tense is very often used for near-future actions, as long as there is a time expression that makes the timing clear, like ce soir.

Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir.
= We’re eating / We will eat the rest of the bread tonight.

This is completely natural and common in French.

You could also say:

Nous allons manger le reste du pain ce soir. (near future, “we are going to eat”)
Nous mangerons le reste du pain ce soir. (simple future, a bit more formal/neutral)

All three are grammatically correct; the present is just the most everyday, conversational option when the future time is obvious from context or an expression like ce soir.

Why is it le reste du pain and not le reste de pain or du reste du pain?

The pattern with reste is:

le reste + de + definite article + noun

Here, pain is specific (the bread we have), so we use le pain → after de this becomes du pain (contraction of de + le).

le reste du pain = the rest of the (specific) bread

Some contrasts:

le reste du pain = the rest of the bread (that specific bread)
le reste de pain would sound odd here; without an article, it would suggest “the rest of bread (in general)” and is not how you normally talk about what’s left of a specific loaf.
du reste du pain is wrong, because you would be saying something like “some of the rest of the bread” — you only need le reste du pain.

Other examples with reste:

le reste de la tarte = the rest of the pie
le reste des pommes = the rest of the apples

What exactly does le reste du pain mean — is it “the leftovers” or literally “the rest of the bread”?

It can cover both ideas, depending on context:

Literally: the remaining part of the bread / the rest of the loaf
More loosely: the leftover bread (what’s left that hasn’t been eaten yet)

If you really wanted to insist on “leftovers” as in “scraps / remains from a meal”, you could also hear:

les restes de pain = the bread leftovers / scraps

But for everyday “we’ll eat what’s left of the bread”, le reste du pain is the normal choice.

Why do we need le before reste? Why not just say Nous mangeons reste du pain ce soir?

In French, almost every common noun needs a determiner (article, possessive, demonstrative, etc.). You almost never leave a noun “bare” like in English.

So reste (a noun here) needs an article:

le reste du pain ✅
reste du pain ❌ (ungrammatical in this context)

Compare:

We like bread → Nous aimons le pain.
We have water → Nous avons de l’eau.

English often omits the article; French usually doesn’t.

Why is it ce soir and not ce nuit for “tonight”?

French uses two different words:

le soir = the evening / early night (roughly when you’re still up and doing things)
la nuit = the night (when people are normally asleep / the deeper night)

For “tonight” in the sense of this evening / tonight (when we’re still awake, eating, going out), French says:

ce soir = this evening / tonight

“Ce nuit” is incorrect. If you talk about during the night, you use:

cette nuit = (during) the night, tonight (while it is night)

Examples:

Je sors ce soir. = I’m going out tonight.
J’ai mal dormi cette nuit. = I slept badly last night / I’ve slept badly tonight.

So for eating dinner etc., ce soir is the right choice.

Could I start the sentence with ce soir: Ce soir, nous mangeons le reste du pain?

Yes. That’s very natural and often used for emphasis on the time:

Ce soir, nous mangeons le reste du pain.
Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir.

Both are correct. Moving ce soir to the beginning just highlights the time a bit more: “As for tonight, we’re eating the rest of the bread.”

Why is it ce soir and not cet soir?

Demonstratives agree with the gender and sometimes with the sound:

ce for masculine nouns starting with a consonant sound
cet for masculine nouns starting with a vowel or mute h
cette for all feminine nouns

Since soir is masculine and starts with a consonant sound /s/:

ce soir ✅
cet soir ❌

Examples:

ce matin (masc., consonant)
cet après-midi (masc., vowel)
cette nuit (fem.)

Could I say On mange le reste du pain ce soir instead of Nous mangeons…? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, and French speakers do it all the time.

Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir.
On mange le reste du pain ce soir.

Meaning is essentially the same: we eat / are eating the rest of the bread tonight.

Difference:

nous → more formal, written, or careful speech; clearly “we”.
on → very common and natural in everyday spoken French; usually means “we” in this kind of context.

In modern spoken French, on is often used where English has we. In writing or in formal situations, nous is preferred, but on is not incorrect, just less formal.

How is mangeons formed, and why is there an extra e before -ons?

The verb is manger (to eat), a regular -er verb with a small spelling change to keep the soft g sound.

Present tense:

je mange
tu manges
il / elle / on mange
nous mangeons
vous mangez
ils / elles mangent

The e in mangeons is there to keep g pronounced like in “measure” /ʒ/ (soft g), not like the hard g in “go”.

ga / go / gu → hard g
ge / gi → soft g

If you wrote mangons (without the extra e), the g would be hard, which is wrong here. So French adds e → mangeons to keep the soft sound.

In English I can say We’re having the rest of the bread tonight. Can I say Nous avons le reste du pain ce soir?

Not with the same meaning. In French, avoir doesn’t mean “to have (for a meal)” the way it can in English.

Nous avons le reste du pain ce soir.
Normally sounds like: “We have the rest of the bread this evening” (we possess it), not “we are eating it.”

To express the idea of “having (food)” as a meal, French uses:

manger (to eat)
or sometimes prendre (to have, to take – for meals/food)

Natural options:

Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir.
Nous prendrons le reste du pain ce soir. (We’ll have the rest of the bread tonight.)

So stick with manger (or prendre in some contexts), not avoir.

Why is it du pain and not just pain like in English “bread”?

French normally requires an article or determiner before a noun. For an unspecified quantity of a mass noun like bread, you use the partitive article:

du pain = some bread / (an unspecified amount of) bread

Here, after reste de, we have:

de + le pain → du pain

So:

le reste du pain = the rest of the bread

Compare:

Je mange du pain. = I eat (some) bread.
Je mange le pain. = I eat the bread (a specific bread).
Il reste du pain. = There is some bread left.
Il reste le pain d’hier. = The bread from yesterday is left.

Can I say Nous mangerons le reste du pain ce soir or Nous allons manger le reste du pain ce soir? Are they different from Nous mangeons…?

Yes, both are correct; each has a slightly different feel:

Nous mangeons le reste du pain ce soir.
- Present used as near future. Very common, neutral, natural in conversation.
Nous allons manger le reste du pain ce soir.
- Near future with aller + infinitive.
- Often feels like a planned or intended future, similar to English “we’re going to eat”.
Nous mangerons le reste du pain ce soir.
- Simple future.
- Slightly more formal or detached; often used in writing or when making a firm statement about the future.

All are grammatically fine; (1) is the most typical everyday phrasing in speech when you add a time expression like ce soir.