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Le travail

How to talk about your job


Je suis chauffeur Je travaille à la piscine
Je m'occupe d'un snack-bar

To say what you do, use je suis followed by the name of your job. There's no need for le or la:

Je suis secrétaire
I'm a secreatary
Je suis mécanicien
I'm a mechanic

To say more about what you do, use je with an appropriate verb:

Je travaille
I work
Je fais
I do
Je commence
I begin
Je m'occupe de
I'm in charge of...

Travailler and commencer are "regular" verbs which follow a predictable pattern. From the -er ending of their infinitive (the dictionary form) you can work out the other endings: je commence, vous commencez... There are similar patterns for verbs ending in -ir and -re (like finir and descendre).


Faire and ê³Ù°ù±ð are "irregular" verbs that don't follow the usual patterns :


Je fais, vous faites
je suis, vous êtes

Some verbs have an extra me (m' before a vowel). This is a reflexive verb, as the action involves just yourself, not anyone or anything else:

je me lève
I get up, literally I get myself up
je m'occupe
I'm busy, literally I occupy myself

You may hear the following expressions when people talk about their jobs:

Je commence ma journée à 08h30.
I begin my day at 8.30.
Vous faites quoi comme travail ?
What's your job?
Votre travail, il est comment ?
What's your work like?
Vous avez un autre métier pendant l'été ?
Do you have another job in summer?

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