Learn French: Gardez ces documents sur votre bureau. - Keep these documents on your desk.

Gardez ces documents sur votre bureau.

Keep these documents on your desk.

Breakdown of Gardez ces documents sur votre bureau.

sur

this (before a noun)

le bureau

the office / the desk

votre

your (formal/plural) (singular and plural forms: votre, vos)

Questions & Answers about Gardez ces documents sur votre bureau.

Why is there no word for 'you' before gardez?

Because this is a command (the imperative mood). Just like in English, you drop the subject pronoun when giving an order or instruction. You say gardez (keep) instead of vous gardez (you keep).

How do we know this command is for the vous form?

The verb ends in -ez, which is the standard vous ending for regular verbs. You use this form when speaking to a group of people or formally to one person. If you were talking to a friend, you would use the tu form and say garde.

Why do we use ces here instead of ce?

Ces means 'these' or 'those' and is always used before plural nouns. Since documents is plural, we use ces. You would use ce for a singular masculine word.

If we are using the vous form, why is it votre bureau and not vos bureaux?

The possessive word must match the thing being owned, not just the owner. Even though the owner is vous, the word bureau (desk) is singular. So, we use the singular votre (your). If there were multiple desks, we would use the plural vos.