Breakdown of L'ami dont le neveu est fidèle va m'aider.
être
to be
l'ami
the friend (m)
aller
to go
aider
to help
Questions & Answers about L'ami dont le neveu est fidèle va m'aider.
Why is there a le in dont le neveu? Doesn't dont already mean 'whose'?
Yes, dont means 'whose' here, but French grammar rules are slightly different from English. In English, we drop the 'the' and say 'whose nephew'. In French, the noun that follows dont must still keep its definite article (le, la, or les). So, you literally say 'whose the nephew'.
Who is doing the helping in this sentence, the friend or the nephew?
Why is the pronoun m' placed before aider instead of before va?
When you have a conjugated verb (va) followed by an infinitive (aider), object pronouns like me (shortened to m') are placed immediately before the infinitive they belong to. You are being helped, so it goes before aider.