Bonjour,
There was a sentence I was working on
Do not call them after eight P.M! For this sentence the answer was
Ne Les appelle pas après huit du soir. Are they using Les here as the direct object because their is no preposition for it to be indirect?
Also why is the pronoun y in this sentence after the conjugated verb?
Tu devrais y prêter attention?
Thank you
Nicole
It's all in the verbs in French. The verb 'appeler qqn' takes a COD. In the sentence Ne les appele pas! -- Don't call them!, les is the COD and, hence takes no preposition. If you had used the verb 'téléphoner', then you would have needed an indirect object pronoun, because it is 'téléphoner à qqn': Ne leur téléphone pas ! -- Don't call them!
Now to your second question. The verb 'prêter' takes an indirect object for the person you lend something to: prêter qqc à qqn -- to lend something to somebody.
Tu devrais prêter attention au programme. -- You should pay attention to the program. In that sentence, 'attention' is the COD (direct object) and 'au programme' is the COI (indirect object). When you replace 'au programme' with a pronoun, you use 'y', because of the preposition 'à':
Tu devrais y prêter attention. -- You should pay attention to it.
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