Grammar (Grammaire) unit 5 Work (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 être 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?