Le garagiste garde la voiture jusqu’à demain, alors l’opticien vérifie mes lunettes aujourd’hui.

In French, you usually need an article before a noun. So:

• le garagiste = the mechanic / the garage owner
• l’opticien = the optician

French uses articles more often than English does. In English, you might sometimes say Mechanic keeps the car... in notes or headlines, but in normal French you would generally say Le garagiste...

Also, l’opticien is just le opticien shortened because opticien starts with a vowel sound.

Garagiste usually means garage mechanic, garage owner, or someone who works at a garage. In everyday translation, mechanic is often the easiest English equivalent.

So in this sentence, Le garagiste garde la voiture means the mechanic/garage is keeping the car.

French avoids the awkward combination of a vowel-ending article followed by a vowel-starting noun.

So:

• le + opticien becomes l’opticien

This is called elision. You will see it often:

• l’homme
• l’école
• l’amie
• l’opticien

It happens with both masculine and feminine singular nouns when they begin with a vowel or mute h.

Yes, garder does mean to keep, but it can also mean to hold onto, to retain, or to keep something for a period of time.

So:

• Le garagiste garde la voiture jusqu’à demain
  = The mechanic is keeping the car until tomorrow

This is a very natural use of garder in French. It suggests the car stays with the mechanic for now.

Because the sentence uses the present tense, and the verbs are conjugated to match the subject.

• Le garagiste garde...
• l’opticien vérifie...

Both le garagiste and l’opticien are third-person singular subjects, so the verbs take the il/elle/on form.

Conjugations:

garder

• je garde
• tu gardes
• il/elle garde
• nous gardons
• vous gardez
• ils/elles gardent

vérifier

• je vérifie
• tu vérifies
• il/elle vérifie
• nous vérifions
• vous vérifiez
• ils/elles vérifient

This is a very common point for English speakers.

• la voiture = the car
• mes lunettes = my glasses

French often uses a definite article with body parts, clothing, or things that are understood from context, but possessive adjectives are also very common when you want to clearly show ownership.

Here, mes lunettes is natural because they are specifically my glasses.
La voiture is also natural because it refers to the car already being discussed in context.

You could imagine a different sentence with ma voiture if the speaker wanted to stress that it is my car.

Because lunettes is plural.

• ma = my + singular feminine noun
• mon = my + singular masculine noun
• mes = my + plural noun

Examples:

• ma voiture = my car
• mon livre = my book
• mes lunettes = my glasses

Even though glasses refers to one item in English, French also treats lunettes as a plural noun.

Jusqu’à demain means until tomorrow.

It is made from:

• jusque = until / up to
• à = to

Before a vowel, jusque à becomes jusqu’à.

So the apostrophe shows elision again:

• jusque + à → jusqu’à

The à has a grave accent because it is the preposition à. That accent helps distinguish it from a, which is a form of the verb avoir.

Here, alors means something like:

• so
• therefore
• in that case
• meanwhile, depending on context

In this sentence, it links the two ideas:

• the mechanic keeps the car until tomorrow,
• so / meanwhile the optician checks my glasses today.

It helps show a connection between the two actions. In natural English, the best translation depends on the intended meaning.

French often places time expressions like aujourd’hui at the end of a clause, although other positions are also possible.

So this is very natural:

• L’opticien vérifie mes lunettes aujourd’hui.

You could also say:

• Aujourd’hui, l’opticien vérifie mes lunettes.

Both are correct. The end position is very common and neutral.

It is related, but the meaning is often a bit broader in French.

Vérifier can mean:

• to check
• to inspect
• to verify

So in this sentence, l’opticien vérifie mes lunettes is most naturally translated as the optician checks my glasses rather than verifies my glasses.

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• lunettes ≈ loo-NET
• opticien ≈ op-tee-SYEN

A few helpful notes:

• In lunettes, the final -s is silent.
• In opticien, the ending -ien has a sound a bit like yen.
• The t in opticien is pronounced.

French pronunciation is smoother and more nasal than these English approximations, but this should help you get started.

Yes. French present tense often covers both the English simple present and present continuous.

So:

• Le garagiste garde la voiture
  can mean The mechanic keeps the car or more naturally here The mechanic is keeping the car

• l’opticien vérifie mes lunettes aujourd’hui
  can mean the optician checks my glasses today or is checking my glasses today

The correct English translation depends on the context and what sounds most natural.