Learn French: Ils arrivent demain ? Nous l'ignorons. - Are they arriving tomorrow? We do not know.

Ils arrivent demain ? Nous l'ignorons.

Are they arriving tomorrow? We do not know.

Breakdown of Ils arrivent demain ? Nous l'ignorons.

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils arrivent demain ? Nous l'ignorons.

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

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."

Doesn't ignorer mean "to ignore" someone?

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."

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

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.

Why is the pronoun l' and not le?