Let's avoid them an awkward situation

Question

The subject text was part of a recent pronouns exercise.
As I understand it the use of the imperative voice was being tested and I wrote "évitons-les" which was incorrect and the correct answer was "évitons-leur" .
I don't understand this because the verb éviter is transitive not intransitive?
I would like to understand why the correct answer is not évitons-les?

Accepted Answer

Hi Jim,
I cannot find the original reference but the English sentence seems rather clumsily  constructed to me but I believe the reason that the answer is leur rather that les is that the following construction is called for:
éviter quelque chose à quelqu'un - Spare somebody something.
So the answer should be something like: évitez-leur une sitation génante.
Hope this helps,
Tom

Answer

Thanks Tom,
I see your point and I agree   éviter quelque chose à quelqu'un

would indeed produce an answer of évitons-leur.
You have answered my question   -- many thanks.
Alan

Answer

Hi Jim,
Just to add to Tom's excellent answer, if it was simply -
'éviter quelque chose/quelqu'un'
as in :
Let's avoid them!  = Evitons-les! 
or
Evitez-les! = Avoid them!
You would then use the direct object pronouns.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Thanks Cécile,
Perhaps it was that aspect (imperative) that puzzled me as to why évitons-les was deemed to be wrong.
But when we think of Tom's point in the sense of "spare somebody something" then he is right with évitons-leur and this was what, I suspect, the question was looking for.
Very much appreciate your comment though about the imperative point.
Regards,
Alan (Jim)