Breakdown of Le héros de la légende dit la vérité au roi.
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
au
to the / at the (masculine singular)
le roi
the king
dire
to say, to tell
Questions & Answers about Le héros de la légende dit la vérité au roi.
Why is dit translated as "told" (past tense) here? Doesn't il dit mean "he tells"?
In this sentence, dit is actually in the passé simple, the literary past tense you are currently learning. For the verb dire, the third-person singular form in the passé simple happens to be identical to the present tense (il dit). You know it means "told" here because it's part of a legend or story, which is typically narrated in the past tense.
Why is it written as Le héros instead of contracting to L'héros?
The word héros begins with a type of H called an aspirated H (h aspiré). Even though you don't pronounce the H, French treats it like a hard consonant boundary. Because of this, you cannot drop the vowel in le or la before it, and you cannot make a connecting sound (liaison) if it follows a plural word.
I learned that raconter means "to tell." Why use dit here instead?
Just as a refresher, why is it au roi and not à le roi?