Leur et les

Hi Noel,

Why is it "les" if it is "Je les ai aidés à déménager", but "Les enfants vont au bord de le mer; je leur ai acheté des vêtements d'été."

In the first sentence the past participle should be written "aidé" (no "s") and "les" is a direct object pronoun. 

In the second sentence "leur" is an indirect object pronoun in the sense of buying the clothes "for" (preposition) them.

Does this help?

Jim

@ Jim: I believe "je les ai aidés" (with -s) is correct. The direct object (les) precedes the participle, which, in this case, needs to match the COD in gender and number.

Absolutely correct Chris.   I missed the fact that the direct object is placed before the verb and so the past participle needs to  concur and should be written "aidés"

Thanks for pointing that out.

Jim

Hi Jim, 

that does make sense, thank you. Though, if you don't mind, I have another question. 

If we were to follow that logic, why would this sentence be "Je l'attend dans le parc" instead of "Je lui attend dans le parc"? After all, wouldn't it be "I waited in the park for her."

Thank you for your help,

Noel 

Remember preposition use is different in French “attendre qqn” - waiting for someone - no preposition in French, direct object. 

It is different with s’attendre à, as per the lesson.