Learn French: Lance-la très loin !

Lance-la très loin !

Throw it very far!

Breakdown of Lance-la très loin !

her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)

lancer

to throw

Questions & Answers about Lance-la très loin !

Why is there a hyphen in lance-la?

When giving a positive command (an affirmative imperative), French moves the object pronoun to the end of the verb and attaches it with a hyphen. Instead of putting it before the verb like in a normal sentence (tu la lances), you attach it to the end: lance-la!

I thought the tu form of lancer was lances. Why is there no "s" at the end of lance?

You are right that the normal present tense is tu lances. However, when making a command with an -er verb, you drop the final -s for the tu form. That is why the verb is simply lance.

Does la mean "her" or "it" in this sentence?

It translates to "it" here, but grammatically it could mean "her" too! In French, la replaces any feminine singular noun. The speaker is likely talking about throwing a feminine object, such as a ball (la balle), so we translate it as "it" in English.

Can loin be used for time, like saying something is "far in the past"?

No, loin is almost exclusively used for physical distance, as in throwing an object "far" away. If you want to say something happened a long time ago, you would use a phrase like il y a longtemps.