À la fin de la journée, ils achètent une petite carte touristique de l'île.

In French, À la fin de la journée is the natural, idiomatic way to say “at the end of the day” (literally in the time sense).

• fin is feminine (la fin), so you cannot say au fin (which would be à + le and is grammatically impossible here).
• The fixed expression is à la fin de [something]:
  • à la fin de la journée – at the end of the day
  • à la fin du film – at the end of the film
  • à la fin de l’année – at the end of the year

As for jour vs journée:

• jour often refers to the day as a unit or date (three days, Monday, etc.).
• journée focuses on the duration and content of the day.

Here we’re talking about what happens during the day, once everything is over, so journée is more natural than jour.

The accent on À (grave accent) distinguishes it from A (which could be the verb a = “has”).

• à (with accent) = preposition (“to, at, in”)
• a (without accent) = 3rd person singular of avoir (“he/she/it has”)

In modern, correct French:

• Accents should be kept on capital letters: À, É, È, Û, etc.
• Older printed texts sometimes dropped them, but that’s now considered outdated or typographically lazy.

So À la fin de la journée is the standard, correct spelling.

Pronunciation:

• ils alone is [il], the s is normally silent.
• achètent is pronounced roughly ch → [ʃ] like “sh” in “shoe”
  • è → open “eh” sound, like in English “bet”
  • final -ent in achètent (3rd person plural) is silent in the present tense.

In a sentence, you make a liaison between ils and achètent:

• ils achètent → [il za‑ʃɛt]

So the whole group sounds like “il-zachèt” (approximate English representation).

The verb acheter is usually constructed like this:

• acheter quelque chose = to buy something
  → ils achètent une carte – they buy a map

If you mention who they buy it from or for, you add à:

• acheter quelque chose à quelqu’un – to buy something from someone / for someone
  → ils achètent une carte au vendeur – they buy a map from the seller
  → ils achètent une carte à leur ami – they buy a map for their friend

In your sentence, only the thing being bought is mentioned (the map), so no preposition is needed: ils achètent une petite carte…

French adjective order is not always the same as English. The default rule is:

• Most adjectives come after the noun.
• A small, common group of adjectives (often about Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size – sometimes remembered as “BAGS”) usually come before the noun.

In this phrase:

• carte is feminine singular → article une.
• petite (small) is an adjective of size, one of those that normally go before the noun.
• touristique (tourist / for tourists) is a more descriptive adjective and stays after the noun.

So the natural French order is:

• une petite carte touristique
  (article + size adjective + noun + descriptive adjective)

Also, adjectives must agree in gender and number:

• une carte → feminine singular
• petite → feminine singular (final -e)
• touristique → same form for masculine/feminine in singular; here it’s feminine singular by context.

The word carte can mean several things in French, depending on context:

• une carte = a map
• une carte postale = a postcard
• la carte (in a restaurant) = the menu / à-la-carte menu
• une carte de crédit = a credit card

In une petite carte touristique de l’île, because it’s described as touristique and associated with de l’île, the meaning is clearly a tourist map of the island – something that shows roads, attractions, etc., for visitors.

So here carte = map, not postcard, not menu, not card.

This is about elision and contraction.

1. l’île

   • The noun île (island) is feminine and starts with a vowel sound.
   • Instead of la île, French uses l’île (drop the a and add an apostrophe).
   • This is elision, used to avoid two vowel sounds in a row.

2. de l’île

   • The preposition de
     • l’ remains de l’; there is no further contraction.
   • You cannot say de la île (wrong) because la île doesn’t exist; it must be l’île.

So the correct form is:

• de l’île = of the island

The preposition de in French is very flexible and often corresponds to English of or from, depending on context.

In une petite carte touristique de l’île, it indicates what the map is about or what it represents:

• une carte de l’île = a map of the island

Other similar examples:

• une carte de la ville – a map of the city
• une photo de la maison – a photo of the house
• le plan de Paris – the (street) map of Paris

So here, de ≈ of in English.

Two different things are happening:

1. Apostrophe (’) – elision

   • la île → l’île
   • The vowel a of la is dropped because île starts with a vowel sound.
   • This avoids a clash of vowels and is standard French spelling.

2. Circumflex on î (ˆ) – île

   • The circumflex (ˆ) in île is mainly historical: it often marks a missing old s (Latin insula → Old French isle → modern île).
   • It slightly affects pronunciation for some speakers (a bit longer or “tighter” vowel), but in everyday speech it usually just sounds like a normal i.

So l’île literally shows both:

• l’ = la (feminine article) with elision
• île = “island”, with a historical circumflex.

It could be written in the past:

• À la fin de la journée, ils ont acheté une petite carte…
  → “At the end of the day, they bought a small tourist map…”

But the present here is a narrative present (also called présent de narration):

• It describes events as if they are happening “right now,” which can make the story or description feel more vivid.
• This is quite common in storytelling, summaries, and captions.

So:

• ils achètent – “they buy” (narrative present, but often translated in English as simple past in a story context)
• ils ont acheté – “they bought” (clear past action)

Both are grammatically correct; the choice depends on style and context.

French has two plural subject pronouns for “they”:

• ils = they (all-male group, or mixed male+female group)
• elles = they (all-female group)

Rules:

• If the group is all women, you use elles:
  • Elles achètent une petite carte.
• If the group is all men or mixed, you use ils:
  • Ils achètent une petite carte.

French does not have a gender‑neutral “they” pronoun that works like English singular they, so ils is the default plural when the group is mixed or the gender is unknown.

Yes, you can. Both are grammatically correct, with a slight difference in emphasis:

• À la fin de la journée, ils achètent une petite carte touristique de l’île.
  → Emphasis on when it happens (“As for the end of the day, that’s when they buy…”).

• Ils achètent une petite carte touristique de l’île à la fin de la journée.
  → More neutral order in spoken French; the time phrase simply comes at the end.

French is fairly flexible with time expressions like this; placing them at the beginning is very common and sounds perfectly natural.