Questions & Answers about Je demande l'heure au serveur.
The English translation says "for the time", but there is no word for "for" in the French sentence. Why?
The French verb demander has "ask for" built right into it when you are requesting an object. You don't need a preposition like "for"; you just place the thing you want right after the verb: Je demande l'heure. Why is there an au before serveur?
In English, we say "I ask the waiter." In French, the structure for communicating with someone using this verb is demander à (literally "to ask to"). Because serveur is a masculine noun, the preposition à and the article le combine to make au. Why use l'heure instead of le temps for "the time"?
In French, le temps is used for "time" in a general, abstract sense (like the passing of time) or for "the weather." When you mean the specific time on a clock, you always use l'heure (literally "the hour"). How would I change this sentence to say "I ask him for the time"?
Because the verb uses à to introduce the person (demander à quelqu'un), you must use an indirect object pronoun. You would replace au serveur with lui (to him) and put it right before the verb: Je lui demande l'heure. Learn Je demande l'heure au serveur and more in French
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