Learn French: Tu as la balle ? Lance-la ! - Do you have the ball? Throw it!

In French, when you give a positive command (the affirmative imperative), the object pronoun moves after the verb and is attached with a hyphen. Instead of saying 'you throw it' (tu la lances), the command is 'throw it!' (lance-la !).

Why doesn't Lance have an 's' at the end? Isn't the 'you' form lances?

Good eye! For verbs ending in -er like lancer, the tu form of a command always drops the final 's'. So, tu lances (you throw) becomes just Lance ! (throw!).

Why do we use la here instead of le?

The pronoun la means 'it' and refers back to la balle (the ball). Because balle is a feminine noun, we must use the feminine pronoun. If you were throwing a masculine object like a balloon (le ballon), it would be Lance-le !.

Is there a difference between la balle and le ballon?

Yes! La balle is usually a smaller ball, like for tennis or baseball. Le ballon is a larger, often inflatable ball, like for soccer or basketball. If you change the sentence to use le ballon, remember to also change the pronoun: Tu as le ballon ? Lance-le !