Learn French: Il ne voit pas le soleil, les nuages le cachent. - He does not see the sun, the clouds hide it.

Il ne voit pas le soleil, les nuages le cachent.

He does not see the sun, the clouds hide it.

Breakdown of Il ne voit pas le soleil, les nuages le cachent.

not (used before the verb)

pas

not (used after the verb)

cacher

to hide

Questions & Answers about Il ne voit pas le soleil, les nuages le cachent.

Since the lesson is about voir (to see), how does it conjugate for other pronouns?

It is highly irregular! In the singular, it is je vois, tu vois, and il/elle/on voit. For the plural, the 'i' changes to a 'y' for nous voyons and vous voyez, but switches back to an 'i' for ils/elles voient.

Why is the word le used right before cachent?

Here, le is a direct object pronoun meaning 'it'. It replaces le soleil (the sun) to avoid repeating the word. Because soleil is a masculine noun, we use le. Remember that in French, object pronouns are placed right before the verb, unlike in English where they come after.

How do you pronounce the verb cachent in this sentence?

The -ent ending on French verbs for ils/elles (third-person plural) is always completely silent. You pronounce cachent exactly the same way you pronounce the singular form cache, which sounds a lot like the English word 'cash'.

If the clouds could 'see', how would you spell the verb for them?