Learn French: Donne-le au chien. - Give it to the dog.

Usually, object pronouns go before the verb (like tu le donnes). But in affirmative commands—when you are telling someone to do something—the pronoun moves to the end of the verb and is attached with a hyphen.

Wait, isn't the informal 'you' form of this verb spelled with an 's' (tu donnes)? Why is it just Donne here?

Good eye! For regular -er verbs like donner, you must drop the final -s in the tu (informal 'you') command form. So tu donnes (you give) becomes just Donne (Give!).

Does le always mean 'it'?

le is the direct object pronoun replacing any masculine singular noun. Here it translates to 'it' (like a toy or a bone), but it can also mean 'him' if you are referring to a person.

Why does the sentence use au instead of à le for 'to the'?

In French, whenever the preposition à (to) is followed directly by the masculine singular article le (the), they must combine to form the word au. It is grammatically incorrect to leave them separate as à le.