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Voici un biscuit. Donne-le au chien !

Voici un biscuit. Donne-le au chien !
Here is a biscuit. Give it to the dog!
From Lesson 113:Commands with object pronouns (fais-le)·French

Questions & Answers about Voici un biscuit. Donne-le au chien !

Why is there a hyphen in Donne-le?
In French, when you give a positive command (the imperative), the object pronoun (like le for "it") attaches to the end of the verb with a hyphen. Normally, pronouns go before the verb, but positive commands are a special exception!
Why do we use le here to mean "it"?
Le refers back to un biscuit. Because biscuit is a masculine noun, we must use the masculine pronoun le for "it". If we were telling someone to give an apple (une pomme), it would be Donne-la.
Doesn't the "tu" form of donner usually end in an "s"? Why is it Donne instead of Donnes?
Good catch! For regular verbs that end in "-er" (like donner), you drop the final "s" in the tu (informal "you") form when giving a command. So, the regular statement Tu donnes becomes the command Donne.
Why does the sentence use au chien instead of à le chien?
In French, the preposition à (meaning "to") and the masculine word for "the" (le) always combine to form au. You will never see à le written together!

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