Breakdown of Je me débarrasse du bazar, je le jette.
je
I
du
of the / from the (masculine singular, with plural des)
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
jeter
to throw away
le bazar
the clutter
se débarrasser de
to get rid of
Questions & Answers about Je me débarrasse du bazar, je le jette.
Why do we use du before bazar but the pronoun le in the second half?
This is because the two verbs work differently. The verb se débarrasser (to get rid of) is always followed by the preposition de. Since bazar is masculine, de + le becomes du. However, the verb jeter (to throw away) takes a direct object without a preposition. So, to say 'I throw it away', we just use the direct object pronoun le.
Why does jette have two 't's?
The infinitive is jeter (with one 't'), but it is a stem-changing verb. When the stress falls on that syllable, like in the je, tu, il/elle, and ils/elles forms in the present tense, the 't' doubles so that the 'e' before it makes an 'eh' sound. In forms like nous jetons, where the stress is on the ending, it keeps a single 't'.
Could I just say je débarrasse le bazar instead of je me débarrasse du bazar?
How would I use the restrictive negation ne... que to say 'I am only getting rid of the clutter'?
You would place ne before the reflexive pronoun and que after the conjugated verb. It becomes: Je ne me débarrasse que du bazar. This implies you are keeping your other things and only getting rid of the clutter.
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