I have a question about the following quiz question:
Elle pardonne à Paul et elle _________
The translation was "She forgives Paul and she forgives us"
The correct answer was "nous pardonne"
I am confused why the first part is "pardonne à Paul" but the second part has the pronoun in front of the verb, "nous pardonne". Is there a general rule to follow for this placement?
H Maggie
Elle nous pardonne = She forgives us
Il vous pardonne = He forgives you
Elle me pardonne = She forgives me
If you take another look at the lesson you will see that it says that these indirect pronouns go before the verb.
In the case of -
Pardonner à quelqu'un = To forgive someone
You don't need a pronoun so it will be a Christian name or a noun representing a person or persons -
Il pardonne aux enfants = He forgives the children
Elle pardonne à Céline = She forgives Céline
Nous pardonnons au docteur = We forgive the doctor
etc.
Hope this helps!
Bonjour Maggie !
The sentence you quote ->
“ Elle pardonne à Paul et elle nous pardonne.
Here, the first part of the sentence was just given to make the learners familiar with the expression-
Pardonner à quelqu’un - To forgive someone
And, accordingly, we had to use the indirect object pronoun in the second part.
You could also say -
Il téléphone à John et ensuite il nous téléphone.
However, there is no such rule regarding this placement that one will use a noun in the first clause and pronoun in the second.
Hope that helps !
When you replace an actual name with a pronoun, the placement changes, and the pronoun goes before the verb.
Je pardonne à Paul. -- I forgive Paul
Je lui pardonne. -- I forgive him.
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