In the phrase, "où ils lui ont confisqué son portable", Why is "lui" there? If it's a pronoun for "him" why does it need to be there? (The subject is "they", the verb is "confiscated" and the object is "his mobile phone".) What grammer rule requires "him" to be part of this sentence? Is there a lesson that explains the answer (I feel like I've missed something).
question about pronoun 'lui' in this sentence
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Craig B.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
question about pronoun 'lui' in this sentence
Asked 1 year ago
Craig, the French expression chosen by the speaker is ‘confisquer qqc à qqn’. Hence, ‘lui’ is required as indirect object pronoun. It specifies further that she is referring to the taking of the phone from her boyfriend.
Given the increasingly melodramatic description for his non-contact, no surprise the speaker here uses 'confisquer' rather than prendre, and wants to emphasise that 'he' clearly has been prevented from contacting her by 'them' doing this !
A point of grammar here is that to say confiscate 'from someone' in French it is 'confisquer à qqn'. The exercise is 'teaching' that by exposure to the expression.
https://www.wordreference.com/fren/confisquer
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/confisquer/18115
https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/confisquer
Craig B. asked:
question about pronoun 'lui' in this sentence
In the phrase, "où ils lui ont confisqué son portable", Why is "lui" there? If it's a pronoun for "him" why does it need to be there? (The subject is "they", the verb is "confiscated" and the object is "his mobile phone".) What grammer rule requires "him" to be part of this sentence? Is there a lesson that explains the answer (I feel like I've missed something).
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