Learn French: L'expéditeur les lui transmet tout de suite. - The sender forwards them to him right away.

L'expéditeur les lui transmet tout de suite.

The sender forwards them to him right away.

Breakdown of L'expéditeur les lui transmet tout de suite.

lui

him / to him / to her (indirect object)

les

them (direct object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about L'expéditeur les lui transmet tout de suite.

Why is the pronoun order les lui instead of lui les?

When a sentence has two third-person pronouns (like le, la, or les combined with lui or leur), the direct object (le, la, or les) always comes before the indirect object (lui or leur). Because both pronouns here are in the third person, it must be les lui.

Could lui also mean "to her" in this sentence?

Yes! The indirect object pronoun lui means both "to him" and "to her". Because it doesn't change based on gender, you would need more context from the surrounding conversation to know exactly who the sender is forwarding things to.

What is the infinitive of transmet and how is it conjugated?

The infinitive is transmettre (to forward or to transmit). It is an irregular verb, but it is highly predictable if you know how to conjugate mettre (to put), because it follows the exact same pattern.

Where does the word l'expéditeur come from?

It comes from the verb expédier, which means "to send" or "to ship" (like a package, letter, or email). While it looks like the English word "expedite", in French it is the standard word for sending things, making l'expéditeur the standard word for "the sender".