Learn Hardcore French: Pour eux, la santé reste la première priorité, avant le travail et les écrans. - For them, health remains the first priority, before work and screens.

In French, after a preposition like pour, you must use a stressed pronoun (also called a tonic or disjunctive pronoun), not a subject pronoun.

ils = subject pronoun (used as the subject of a verb)
- Ils travaillent. → They work.
eux = stressed pronoun (used after prepositions, for emphasis, etc.)
- Pour eux, la santé est importante. → For them, health is important.

So pour + eux is the correct combination. pour ils is always wrong.

What nuance does pour eux have here? Is it like according to them?

Pour eux literally means for them, but here it has the nuance:

In their view / As far as they are concerned / For them personally

It is close in meaning to selon eux or d’après eux (according to them), but:

pour eux often suggests personal priorities, tastes, or point of view
selon eux / d’après eux is more about what they say or claim, often used for opinions or reported speech

In this sentence, pour eux means: if you look at their priorities, from their point of view, health comes first.

Why do we say la santé and not just santé, since in English we say “health” without “the”?

French tends to use the definite article (le / la / les) with abstract or general concepts much more than English does.

La santé est importante. → Health is important.
La liberté est essentielle. → Freedom is essential.
Le travail est nécessaire. → Work is necessary.

So la santé is the normal way to say “health” in a general, abstract sense.
Dropping the article (∅ santé) would sound wrong here.

Why is it la santé (feminine)? Does that change anything else in the sentence?

santé is grammatically feminine in French, so it takes:

the feminine article la: la santé
feminine adjectives if you add them: la bonne santé, une santé excellente

In this sentence:

the verb reste does not change with gender, only with number:
- La santé reste… / Le travail reste… → same verb form

So the main effect you see here is just the article la, because santé is feminine.

What exactly does reste mean here? Why not just est?

Here reste comes from rester, and it means remains / stays / is still:

La santé reste la première priorité.
→ Health remains the first priority / is still the top priority.

Using reste instead of est adds the idea that:

it was already the first priority before
and it continues to be so now

If you said La santé est la première priorité, it would simply state a fact, without that nuance of continuity.

Isn’t la première priorité redundant, like saying “the first priority priority”?

It can sound slightly redundant to English speakers, but in French it is natural and common:

la première priorité = the top priority / the number-one priority

You could also say:

la priorité principale
la priorité numéro un

But la première priorité is perfectly acceptable for emphasis: it underlines that, among several priorities, this one comes first.

Why is première spelled with an extra e at the end?

premier / première is an adjective (an ordinal number) and it must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies.

masculine singular: premier
- le premier jour (the first day)
feminine singular: première
- la première priorité (the first priority)
masculine plural: premiers
feminine plural: premières

Since priorité is feminine singular, you must say la première priorité.

How does avant work here? Why is it just avant, not avant de or avant que?

In this sentence, avant is a preposition used directly before nouns:

avant le travail et les écrans
→ before work and screens / ahead of work and screens (in order of priority)

The patterns are:

avant + noun
- avant le repas, avant la réunion, avant le travail
avant de + infinitive (before doing something)
- avant de partir, avant de manger
avant que + subordinate clause (subjunctive)
- avant que tu partes, avant qu’il arrive

Here we have nouns (le travail, les écrans), so we use just avant.

Why is it le travail (singular) but les écrans (plural)?

Because the two French nouns have different typical usages:

le travail (work, job) is usually treated as a mass or general concept, like English “work”:
- Le travail est important. → Work is important.
- Ils donnent beaucoup d’importance au travail. → They place a lot of importance on work.
les écrans (screens) is often used in the plural, referring to all kinds of screens:
- TV screens, computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.
- Limiter le temps passé devant les écrans. → Limit time spent in front of screens.

So le travail = work as a general idea,
les écrans = all types of screens collectively, hence the plural.

Why do travail and écrans take le and les? Could we drop the articles?

Here, le travail and les écrans also refer to general categories (not specific, individual objects), and French usually keeps the definite article in that case:

Le travail est fatigant. → Work is tiring.
Les écrans peuvent être nocifs. → Screens can be harmful.

You cannot normally drop the article in this kind of general statement. Saying ∅ travail or ∅ écrans would be ungrammatical in this context.

What exactly does écrans mean here? Only TVs, or phones too?

In current French, les écrans is a broad term that usually includes:

television screens
computer screens
tablets
smartphones
sometimes even game consoles and similar devices

So avant le travail et les écrans suggests:

they put health before both work and screen time / use of digital devices.

Can pour eux go at the end of the sentence? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can also say:

La santé reste la première priorité, avant le travail et les écrans, pour eux.

The meaning is basically the same, but the emphasis changes:

Pour eux, la santé reste…
→ puts the focus first on their point of view.
…pour eux at the end
→ presents the fact first and adds “for them” as a clarification or afterthought.

Both are correct; the original version sounds slightly more natural in written, somewhat formal French.

Why is there a comma after Pour eux?

Pour eux here is a detached introductory phrase (a dislocated or fronted element), so it is separated by a comma:

Pour eux, la santé reste la première priorité…

This comma:

clearly marks Pour eux as a phrase giving context (their point of view)
helps readability and reflects a short pause in speech

Without the comma, the sentence would be harder to read and would not follow normal punctuation rules.