Log inSign up

Elle dit son adresse au client.

Elle dit son adresse au client.
She tells her address to the client.
From Lesson 64:Regular -re verbs (attendre, répondre)·French

Questions & Answers about Elle dit son adresse au client.

Is dit a regular -re verb like the ones in this lesson?
dit comes from dire (to say/tell), which ends in -re but is irregular. It doesn't follow the exact same rules as regular verbs like attendre (to wait) or répondre (to answer). However, its -t ending for the il/elle (he/she) form is a very common pattern you will see for most -re verbs!
Why is it son adresse? Isn't adresse feminine, and doesn't son mean "his"?
In French, possessive words match the thing being owned, not the owner. Since adresse is feminine, you would normally use sa. However, because adresse starts with a vowel, French swaps in the masculine son to make it flow better and avoid the clunky "sa adresse" sound. So son adresse can mean "his address" or "her address" depending on the context!
Why does the sentence use au instead of à le for "to the"?
In French, you can never say à le. Whenever the preposition à (to/at) meets the masculine article le (the), they always combine to form the single word au. If she were speaking to a female client, it would just be à la cliente, because à and la do not combine.
I thought dire meant "to say". Why is it translated as "tells" here?
The French verb dire covers both "to say" and "to tell". While English has strict rules about when to use "say" vs "tell", French generally just uses dire for both. In this sentence, translating it as "She tells her address" sounds much more natural in English than "She says her address".

Learn Elle dit son adresse au client and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →