Breakdown of Nous lui disons de préparer le biberon.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
lui
him / to him / to her (indirect object)
préparer
to prepare
dire
to say, to tell
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
le biberon
the baby bottle
Questions & Answers about Nous lui disons de préparer le biberon.
Why do we need de before préparer?
This sentence uses an indirect command, which is exactly what your current lesson covers! In French, when you report that you are telling someone to do something, you use the structure dire à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose. The de is required to connect the verb dire to the action they need to do (préparer).
Why does the sentence use lui instead of le for him?
The verb dire requires an indirect object for the person you are talking to. In French, you say something to someone (dire à quelqu'un). Because of that hidden to (à), we must use the indirect object pronoun lui rather than the direct object pronoun le.
Since lui is an indirect object pronoun, could this sentence also mean We tell her...?
Could nous disons translate to we are telling as well?
Yes. French doesn't have a separate -ing tense like English does. The simple present tense nous disons translates to both we tell (as a general fact) and we are telling (happening right now).
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