Learn French: Nous partons pour l'hôtel mais j'oublie ma clé. - We are leaving for the hotel but I am forgetting my key.

Nous partons pour l'hôtel mais j'oublie ma clé.

We are leaving for the hotel but I am forgetting my key.

Breakdown of Nous partons pour l'hôtel mais j'oublie ma clé.

mais

but

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

pour

for

Questions & Answers about Nous partons pour l'hôtel mais j'oublie ma clé.

Why is it nous partons instead of adding an extra 's' sound like in other -ir verbs?

Partir (to leave) is an irregular -ir verb. Unlike regular -ir verbs that add an extra -iss- in the plural (like nous finissons), partir does not. For the nous form, you just take the base part- and add -ons to get nous partons.

Can I just say nous partons l'hôtel without pour?

No, just like in English where you say leaving for a place, French uses pour to show your destination. When using partir to say where you are heading, you will usually pair it with pour.

Why is it j'oublie instead of je oublie?

The word je (I) drops its e and attaches to the next word with an apostrophe if that word begins with a vowel or a silent h. Since oublie starts with a vowel, it becomes j'oublie. This makes the phrase smoother to pronounce.

Why do we use ma for the word key here?