Je prends rendez-vous aujourd’hui.

Literally, prendre means to take, but prendre rendez-vous is a fixed French expression meaning to make an appointment, to book an appointment, or to arrange a meeting.

So in this sentence, you should understand it as an idiom, not word-for-word.

Because prends is the correct first-person singular form of the irregular verb prendre in the present tense.

Present tense of prendre:

• je prends
• tu prends
• il / elle / on prend
• nous prenons
• vous prenez
• ils / elles prennent

So je prends means I take or, in this expression, I make.

Also, the final -s in prends is normally not pronounced.

Yes, rendez-vous is normally written with a hyphen.

It comes from an older expression based on the verb se rendre, and over time it became a fixed noun/expression. Modern French keeps the hyphen in standard spelling.

So you should learn rendez-vous as one fixed unit.

In the expression prendre rendez-vous, French usually does not use an article.

So:

• Je prends rendez-vous = I’m making an appointment
• not usually Je prends un rendez-vous in basic everyday usage

This is just how the idiom works. French often has fixed expressions where English learners expect an article, but French leaves it out.

If rendez-vous is used as an ordinary noun in another structure, you can have an article:

• J’ai un rendez-vous = I have an appointment
• Le rendez-vous est à 15h = The appointment is at 3 p.m.

Usually, no.

Je prends rendez-vous aujourd’hui means I’m making / booking an appointment today.

If you want to say I have an appointment today, French would usually say:

• J’ai rendez-vous aujourd’hui or
• J’ai un rendez-vous aujourd’hui

So this sentence is about arranging the appointment, not already having it.

Yes, it could go somewhere else.

In French, adverbs of time like aujourd’hui often go at the beginning or end of the sentence.

These are both natural:

• Je prends rendez-vous aujourd’hui.
• Aujourd’hui, je prends rendez-vous.

The version with aujourd’hui at the end sounds very natural and neutral. Putting it at the beginning gives a little more emphasis to today.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

zhuh pran rahn-day-voo oh-zhoor-dwee

A few important points:

• je sounds like zhuh
• prends has a nasal vowel; the final -ds is not pronounced
• rendez-vous is pronounced roughly rahn-day-voo
• aujourd’hui is roughly oh-zhoor-dwee

This sentence has several sounds that do not match English spelling very closely, especially the nasal sounds in prends and rendez-vous.

It is masculine.

So if you use an article, you would say:

• un rendez-vous
• le rendez-vous

Even though there is no article in prendre rendez-vous, it is still useful to know that the noun itself is masculine.

Yes. It is very commonly used for that.

For example:

• Je prends rendez-vous avec le médecin. = I’m making an appointment with the doctor.
• Je prends rendez-vous chez le dentiste. = I’m making an appointment with the dentist.

So this expression is extremely useful in everyday French, especially for medical, administrative, or professional appointments.

It is grammatically present tense, but in real use it often means something happening right now, around now, or as a current action/plan.

So Je prends rendez-vous aujourd’hui can mean:

• I’m making an appointment today
• I’m booking an appointment today

This is very normal in French. The present tense is often used where English prefers am doing.