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Ils ne peuvent pas assister à cet exposé ce matin.

Ils ne peuvent pas assister à cet exposé ce matin.
They cannot attend this presentation this morning.
From Lesson 107:The pronoun of place (y)·French

Questions & Answers about Ils ne peuvent pas assister à cet exposé ce matin.

How could we use the pronoun y in this sentence?
The pronoun y replaces a place or a thing introduced by the preposition à. Here, you can use it to replace à cet exposé (to this presentation). Because assister is an infinitive (unchanged) verb, y goes right in front of it: Ils ne peuvent pas y assister ce matin. (They cannot attend it this morning.)
Why does assister mean "attend" instead of "assist"?
Assister is a false friend—a word that looks like English but has a different meaning. In French, assister à means to attend or to be present at an event. If you want to say "to assist" or "to help," you would use the verb aider.
Why is it cet exposé and not ce exposé?
Exposé is a masculine noun, so normally you would use the masculine word for "this": ce. However, because exposé starts with a vowel, you must add a "t" to make the pronunciation smoother. So, ce becomes cet.
Why do the negative words go around peuvent and not assister?
In French, the two parts of the negative, ne and pas, always wrap around the conjugated verb. Here, the verb for "can" is conjugated as peuvent, while assister remains in its full, unchanged dictionary form. Therefore, it has to be Ils ne peuvent pas...

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