Question 1

Why is the pronoun order te le and not le te?

Accepted Answer

When a sentence has two object pronouns placed before the verb, and one of them is first or second person (me, te, nous, vous), that pronoun always comes before the third-person direct object pronoun (le, la, les). Since te is second person, it must come before le.

Question 2

How do we know te means "to you" and le means "him" here?

Accepted Answer

It comes down to the verb confier (to entrust), which is structured as confier quelque chose à quelqu'un (to entrust something to someone). The "something" being entrusted is the dog, so we use the direct object pronoun le (him/it). The "someone" receiving the dog is "you", so we use the indirect object pronoun te (to you).

Question 3

Why does the sentence use c'est mon chien instead of il est mon chien?

Accepted Answer

This is a great rule to remember: whenever you follow "it is" or "he/she is" with a modified noun (a noun that has a determiner like un, le, or mon in front of it), you must use c'est. You generally only use il est when it is followed by an adjective alone or an unmodified profession (like il est grand or il est médecin).

Question 4

What kind of word is volontiers and where does it go in a negative sentence?

Accepted Answer

Volontiers is an adverb meaning "gladly" or "with pleasure". In French, adverbs typically follow the conjugated verb, which is why it comes right after confie. If you were to make this sentence negative, the adverb would go after the pas: je ne te le confie pas volontiers.

C'est mon chien, je te le confie volontiers.

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