L’agence bancaire est ouverte aujourd’hui.

Because French normally avoids putting la directly before a vowel sound. When la comes before a word starting with a vowel or a silent h, it contracts to l’. This is called elision.

So:

• la banque
• l’agence

You still understand it as the agency, but the spelling changes for smoother pronunciation.

Agence bancaire means a bank branch or banking agency, while banque can mean bank more generally.

So l’agence bancaire focuses on the physical branch or office being open. In everyday French, many speakers would also simply say la banque est ouverte aujourd’hui, but agence bancaire is a bit more specific or formal.

In French, most adjectives come after the noun, unlike in English.

So:

• une agence bancaire = a bank branch / a banking agency
• literally: an agency banking

This is normal French word order. Some adjectives come before the noun, but most do not.

Because ouverte agrees with agence, which is a feminine singular noun.

French adjectives often change form to match the noun they describe:

• masculine singular: ouvert
• feminine singular: ouverte
• masculine plural: ouverts
• feminine plural: ouvertes

Since agence is feminine singular, the correct form is ouverte.

Some French adjectives have the same form in the masculine and feminine singular. Bancaire is one of them.

So you get:

• un service bancaire
• une agence bancaire

Even though service is masculine and agence is feminine, bancaire stays the same in spelling.

Est is the third-person singular form of the verb être (to be).

So:

• je suis = I am
• tu es = you are
• il/elle est = he/she/it is

In this sentence, l’agence bancaire est ouverte means the bank branch is open.

For a learner, the simplest way to understand it is as an adjective meaning open.

So est ouverte works like:

• La porte est ouverte = The door is open
• L’agence bancaire est ouverte = The bank branch is open

Grammatically, French can analyze forms like this in more than one way depending on context, but in practical learner terms, it is best treated as être + adjective here.

Because aujourd’hui is a fixed French word meaning today, and it is always written with that apostrophe.

It comes from older French forms historically, but for modern learners the important thing is:

• write it as aujourd’hui
• do not split it into separate words
• keep the apostrophe

Normally, no. In French, nouns usually need an article or another determiner.

So French prefers:

• L’agence bancaire est ouverte aujourd’hui.

Not:

• Agence bancaire est ouverte aujourd’hui.

English often allows zero article in places where French does not.

A simple approximation is oo-VEHRT.

A few helpful points:

• ou sounds like oo in food
• ver sounds roughly like vehr
• the final te is pronounced because of the -te ending in the feminine form

So ouvert and ouverte do not sound exactly the same:

• ouvert ≈ oo-VEHR
• ouverte ≈ oo-VEHRT

Usually, yes. Many speakers pronounce a t sound linking the two words:

• est ouverte → roughly eh too-VEHRT

This linking is called liaison. It helps the sentence flow smoothly.

No. It is very natural at the end, but French can place time expressions in different positions.

For example:

• L’agence bancaire est ouverte aujourd’hui.
• Aujourd’hui, l’agence bancaire est ouverte.

Both are correct. Putting aujourd’hui first can give it a little more emphasis.