| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "I'm completing the vocabulary exercise on page forty‑two." |
| Je suis en train de compléter l'exercice de vocabulaire à la page quarante‑deux. |
| Je suis en train de compléter l'exercice de vocabulaire à la page quarante‑deux. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here:. |
| être en train de + infinitive |
| It means someone is in the middle of doing something — it emphasizes the action is happening right now. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Je suis en train de compléter l'exercice de vocabulaire à la page quarante‑deux. |
| "I'm completing the vocabulary exercise on page forty‑two." |
| Let's break it down: |
| Je, the subject pronoun, meaning "I," |
| followed by |
| suis, the present tense of être "to be," |
| en train de, an expression meaning "in the process of," |
| compléter, the infinitive verb meaning "to complete," |
| l'exercice de vocabulaire, meaning "the vocabulary exercise," |
| and |
| à la page quarante-deux, meaning "on page forty-two." |
| So altogether it literally means: |
| "I'm in the process of completing the vocabulary exercise on page forty-two." |
| But in natural English it means "I'm completing the vocabulary exercise on page forty‑two." |
| This expression helps you say what someone is doing right now in a natural, clear way. |
| Now you know how to talk about what someone is doing in French. |
| Let's talk about adverbs of frequency—these are the little words that tell us how often something happens. In French, they usually come right after the verb. |
| You've already heard one in the dialogue: |
| Est‑ce que tu étudies souvent chez toi ? |
| That means: "Do you study at home often?" |
| Here, étudies is the verb, and souvent is the adverb—it means "often." So this question is asking how frequently someone studies at home. |
| You can use other frequency adverbs in just the same way. For example, |
| toujours means "always," or "still," |
| rarement means "rarely," |
| and presque means "almost." |
| All of these help add more detail when you talk about what someone does in daily life. Just remember—most of the time, they go right after the verb. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Je suis en train de lire un article intéressant. |
| "I'm reading an interesting article." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Je, the subject pronoun, means "I." |
| suis, the first-person singular of être in the present tense, meaning "am." |
| en train de, a fixed expression that means "in the process of." |
| lire, the infinitive verb, meaning "to read." |
| un article intéressant, meaning "an interesting article." |
| So altogether: |
| "I'm reading an interesting article." |
| This sentence uses the pattern être en train de + infinitive to clearly show that the action is happening right now. It's very useful when you want to emphasize that something is currently in progress. |
| Here's another example |
| Ils sont en train de faire leurs devoirs. |
| "They are doing their homework." |
| Ils sont en train de faire leurs devoirs. |
| "They are doing their homework." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Tu es toujours en train de regarder des vidéos ? |
| "Are you still watching videos?" |
| Tu es toujours en train de regarder des vidéos ? |
| "Are you still watching videos?" |
| Another one. |
| Nous étudions rarement le week-end. |
| "We rarely study on the weekend." |
| Nous étudions rarement le week-end. |
| "We rarely study on the weekend." |
| One last example. |
| Elle révise presque chaque matin avant le cours. |
| "She reviews almost every morning before class." |
| Elle révise presque chaque matin avant le cours. |
| "She reviews almost every morning before class." |
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