Question 1

Why is m' an indirect object here? In English, we just say "she called me".

Accepted Answer

In French, the verb is téléphoner à (to call to someone). Because of that invisible "to" built into how the verb works, the "me" is an indirect object. Even though it translates directly to "called me" in English, you have to treat it as an indirect object in French.

Question 2

Where exactly does the object pronoun go in the passé composé?

Accepted Answer

Object pronouns always go immediately before the conjugated verb. In the passé composé, the conjugated verb is the helper verb (here, a from avoir). So, me goes right before a, which then shrinks into m'a because of the vowel. It never goes right before the past participle (téléphoné).

Question 3

If a woman is speaking, shouldn't téléphoné get an extra "e" at the end?

Accepted Answer

No, it stays exactly as it is! In the passé composé, you only make the past participle match a preceding direct object. Because m' is an indirect object (thanks to téléphoner à), téléphoné does not change, no matter who is speaking.

Question 4

Why do we use pour before s'excuser?

Accepted Answer

When you want to say "in order to" do something in French, you use pour followed by the infinitive (the unconjugated dictionary form) of the verb. So pour s'excuser literally means "in order to apologize."

Question 5

Why is there an s' attached to excuser?

Accepted Answer

The verb for "to apologize" in French is reflexive: s'excuser (literally, "to excuse oneself"). Even though it follows pour and stays in the infinitive form, you still keep the reflexive pronoun se, which shortens to s' before the vowel in excuser.

Elle m'a téléphoné pour s'excuser.

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