Paul effectue un virement aujourd’hui.

Effectuer is a more formal, administrative verb meaning to carry out or to make. In banking and official contexts, French often prefers effectuer un virement rather than the more everyday faire un virement.

Both can be correct, but:

• effectuer un virement = more formal, common in banking language
• faire un virement = more everyday, very common in speech

So this sentence sounds natural, especially in a financial or professional context.

Un virement usually means a bank transfer. It is a masculine noun.

It is commonly used for:

• transferring money from one bank account to another
• making a payment by bank transfer

Examples:

• faire un virement bancaire = to make a bank transfer
• recevoir un virement = to receive a bank transfer

In many contexts, just un virement is enough, because the banking meaning is understood.

French nouns normally need an article. Here, un is the masculine singular indefinite article, like a or an in English.

So:

• un virement = a transfer

You usually cannot just say Paul effectue virement in standard French. The noun needs a determiner:

• un virement = a transfer
• le virement = the transfer
• ce virement = this transfer
• son virement = his transfer

Because the subject is Paul, which is third person singular. The verb must agree with the subject.

Effectuer is the infinitive form. In the present tense:

• j’effectue = I carry out
• tu effectues = you carry out
• il / elle / on effectue = he / she / one carries out
• nous effectuons
• vous effectuez
• ils / elles effectuent

Since Paul is like il, the correct form is effectue.

Putting aujourd’hui at the end is very natural in French. It means today and works here as a time expression.

French often places time expressions:

• at the end: Paul effectue un virement aujourd’hui.
• at the beginning: Aujourd’hui, Paul effectue un virement.

Both are correct, but the sentence-final position is especially common in ordinary statements.

Beginning with Aujourd’hui can slightly emphasize the time.

The apostrophe is just part of the fixed spelling of aujourd’hui. It is not something you change depending on the next word.

So it is always written:

• aujourd’hui

Historically, it comes from older forms of French, but for a learner, the important thing is simply to memorize it as one word with an apostrophe.

It is pronounced approximately like oh-zhoor-dwee.

A rough breakdown:

• au sounds like o
• jour sounds roughly like zhoor
• d’hui sounds roughly like dwee

The j in jour is the soft French sound, like the s in measure.

If you know IPA, it is commonly pronounced /o.ʒuʁ.dɥi/.

Yes, effectue is in the present tense.

But the French present tense can cover several ideas, depending on context:

• something happening now
• something happening today
• a habitual action
• sometimes even a near future meaning

In this sentence, because of aujourd’hui, it most naturally means that Paul is making/carrying out a bank transfer today. It does not have to mean at this exact second.

Yes, absolutely. That is very natural French.

The difference is mainly one of register:

• Paul fait un virement aujourd’hui = more everyday
• Paul effectue un virement aujourd’hui = more formal, administrative, or business-like

So if you are speaking casually, fait is often the simpler and more common choice.

Yes, it follows a very standard French word order:

Subject + verb + object + time expression

So:

• Paul = subject
• effectue = verb
• un virement = direct object
• aujourd’hui = time expression

This is one of the most common and neutral sentence patterns in French. That is why the sentence sounds straightforward and natural.