Le train arrive enfin à Lille.

The train finally arrives in Lille.

Breakdown of Le train arrive enfin à Lille.

• à: in
• arriver: to arrive
• le train: the train
• enfin: finally

Questions & Answers about Le train arrive enfin à Lille.

Why is it le train and not just train?

In French, you usually need an article before a singular countable noun. So train normally appears as le train, un train, ce train, etc.

Here, le train means the train. French uses articles more consistently than English, so leaving it out would sound unnatural.

Why is arrive spelled like that? Why not arrives like in English?

French verb endings work differently from English ones.

The verb here is arriver = to arrive. With le train (it), the present-tense form is:

• j’arrive
• tu arrives
• il / elle / on arrive
• nous arrivons
• vous arrivez
• ils / elles arrivent

So le train arrive is correct because le train is third-person singular, like it arrives.

Even though tu arrives and ils arrivent have extra letters in writing, those endings are often not pronounced differently.

Is arrive here really present tense? Could it also sound like English is arriving?