Breakdown of Ils leur rendent l'argent.
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
l'argent
the money (m)
leur
to them (indirect object)
rendre
to return, to give back
Questions & Answers about Ils leur rendent l'argent.
Why do we use leur instead of les here?
In French, the verb rendre (to return/give back) requires the preposition à when returning something to someone (rendre quelque chose à quelqu'un). Because the action is happening to them, we use the indirect object pronoun leur. If we were acting directly on them, we would use the direct object pronoun les.
Why is leur placed before the verb instead of after it?
In French, object pronouns like leur are almost always placed directly before the conjugated verb. So, instead of the English word order 'They return to them', French uses the order 'They to them return', which gives us Ils leur rendent.
I have seen leur and leurs used to mean 'their'. Why does leur not have an 's' here since it refers to multiple people?
You are thinking of the possessive adjective (as in leur maison or leurs chiens). Here, leur is an indirect object pronoun meaning 'to them'. As an indirect object pronoun, leur is completely invariable, meaning it never takes an 's' at the end, no matter how many people it refers to.
Why does the sentence use l'argent instead of de l'argent?
We use l'argent because we are talking about 'the' money—a specific amount that is being returned. If the sentence were 'They return some money to them,' we would use the partitive article and say de l'argent.
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