Breakdown of Il m'a expliqué son erreur.
il
he
avoir
to have
l'erreur
the mistake, an error (f)
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
expliquer
to explain
me
me, myself (object pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Il m'a expliqué son erreur.
Why does the m' ("to me") go before the helping verb a?
In French, object pronouns usually go right before the conjugated verb. In the passé composé, the conjugated verb is the helping verb (like a here, from avoir). So, the pronoun me is placed immediately before a, not before the past participle expliqué.
What exactly does m' stand for in this sentence?
It stands for me, which acts as an indirect object pronoun meaning "to me". Because the helping verb a starts with a vowel, the e in me is dropped (elided) to make m'a.
If erreur is a feminine noun, why does the sentence use the masculine son instead of sa?
Do we need to make expliqué agree with the feminine noun erreur or the pronoun m'?
No, expliqué stays exactly as it is. When using the helping verb avoir, the past participle only changes to match a direct object if it comes before the verb. Here, the direct object (son erreur) is after the verb, and the pronoun before the verb (m') is an indirect object, so there is no agreement.
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