Question 1

Why is there an l' before ignorons when the English translation just says "We do not know"?

Accepted Answer

In English, we can just say "We don't know." In French, verbs like savoir, croire, and ignorer often need a direct object. Here, the l' is the neuter pronoun le (meaning "it"), and it replaces the entire previous idea (ils arrivent demain). So literally, you are saying "We do not know it."

Question 2

Doesn't ignorer mean "to ignore" someone?

Accepted Answer

It is a classic false friend! While it can occasionally mean to ignore, its primary meaning in French is "to not know" or "to be unaware of." To say "ignore" in the English sense of purposefully paying no attention to someone, you would more commonly use ne pas faire attention à or snober. Here, Nous l'ignorons simply means "We don't know it."

Question 3

Could I say Nous ne le savons pas instead of Nous l'ignorons?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. Nous ne le savons pas means exactly the same thing. Using ignorer is just a slightly more formal and concise way to express that you don't know something, and it has the added bonus of letting you avoid the two-part negative ne ... pas structure.

Question 4

Why is the pronoun l' and not le?

Accepted Answer

Because ignorons starts with a vowel, the pronoun le drops its vowel and blends with the verb. This is called elision. Even though this le stands for a whole idea (which is why we call it "neuter"), it acts exactly like the standard masculine pronoun le when it comes to dropping its vowel before another vowel.

Question 5

Why isn't the first sentence inverted, like Arrivent-ils demain ?

Accepted Answer

You can definitely use inversion or add est-ce que to form this question. However, in everyday spoken French, it is extremely common to just make a statement and turn it into a question by raising your voice at the end, exactly as written here (Ils arrivent demain ?).

Ils arrivent demain ? Nous l'ignorons.

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