Mon Jour de Travaille

Mon Jour de Travaille

Je suis à la retraite, mais je travaille encore à mi-temps. Le mardi, le mercredi et le jeudi, je me lève à six heures en la matin et prends petit déjeuner. Puis je conduis à mon bureau en le centre ville. J'arrive à sept heures, et j'ai un café et lis le journal jusqu'à il est le temps commencer travail à huit heures. Je pars le bureau à quatre heures et arrive chez moi à cinq heures.

This is what I'm trying to say:

My Work Day

I'm retired, but I still work part-time. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, I get up at 6:00 a.m. and have breakfast. Then I drive to my office in the city centre. I arrive at 7, and have a coffee and read the paper until it's time to begin work at 8. I leave the office at 4 and get home at 5.

Questions:

1) Is it necessary to repeat le before each day of the week?
2) Is it more it more correct in French to "prends" petit déjeuner or to say "j'ai"?

Thanks for your help,

Al

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 16, 2009 at 10:40pm

Hi Al,

1) Is it necessary to repeat le before each day of the week?

Not at all.

"Mardi, mercredi et jeudi, je me lève à six heures" would be perfectly correct as well.

You can also just prepend "le" to the first one: "Le mardi, mercredi et jeudi".

If this is something that happens every week, you can also (but this is not a requirement) use the plural form: "Les mardis, mercredis et jeudis".

2) Is it more it more correct in French to "prends" petit déjeuner or to say "j'ai"?

Either "prendre le petit déjeuner" or just "déjeuner".

Mon jour de travail.

Je suis à la retraite, mais je travaille encore à mi-temps. Le mardi, le mercredi et le jeudi, je me lève à six heures du matin et prends mon petit déjeuner. Puis je conduis jusqu’à mon bureau dans le centre-ville. J'arrive à sept heures, prends un café et lis le journal jusqu'à ce qu’il soit l’heure de commencer le travail, à huit heures. Je pars du bureau à quatre heures et arrive chez moi à cinq heures.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 16, 2009 at 10:48pm

Regarding the verb "conduire": this is a verb we use in order to describe a way of transportation, but not much in order to say that we moved from location A to location B, even when it's by car.

"Je vais au bureau" is more natural than "Je conduis jusqu'au bureau". Unless you really want to emphasize the fact that you were driving (maybe because you just bought a new car, or got your license), you should just say "aller", not "conduire" nor "rouler". It's probably more of a cultural thing than a language rule, though.

But then, if a colleague explicitly asks you about what mode of transport you took, you can answer "J'ai conduit".

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Permalink Reply by Al Graham on October 17, 2009 at 1:46am

Thanks Frank.

Les mardis, mercredis et jeudis is closest to what I meant, so I'll use that.

By Either "prendre le petit déjeuner" or just "déjeuner". do you mean that one can substitute déjeuner in this phrase by itself to mean breakfast, or that you'd use prendre le with déjeuner to mean 'have lunch'?

Also, I notice nouns don't seem to need an article when they are preceded by a possessive pronoun, e.g., mon bureau. Is this a correct assumption?

Thanks again for your help.

Al

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 17, 2009 at 1:14pm

Hi Al,

The noun for "breakfast" is "petit déjeuner" (in conversational French it's often shortened as "p'tit déj" btw).

But while the verb "petit-déjeuner" would be perfectly understood, we just say "déjeuner", ie. the same verb for having breakfast as for having lunch.

And you are perfectly right. After a possessive pronoun, there should be no article. It would be redundant.