Breakdown of Nous surveillons les enfants et nous leur interdisons de jouer ici.
ici
here
l'enfant
the child
et
and
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
jouer
to play
leur
to them (indirect object)
interdire
to forbid
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
surveiller
to supervise
Questions & Answers about Nous surveillons les enfants et nous leur interdisons de jouer ici.
Why is there a de before jouer?
This is how French forms an indirect command with this verb. The structure is interdire à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose (to forbid someone from doing something). The de acts as the glue connecting the command verb directly to the infinitive action jouer.
Why do we use the pronoun leur instead of les before interdisons?
Because interdire takes an indirect object for the person receiving the command. In French, you forbid a given action to someone (à quelqu'un). Since we are referring to les enfants (plural), the indirect pronoun for 'to them' is leur. Notice how surveiller takes a direct object, which is why we just say les enfants directly in the first half of the sentence.
If we were giving the children a direct command instead of reporting it, what would that look like?
You would use the imperative mood and say directly to them: Ne jouez pas ici ! (Do not play here!). When we report that rule to a third party, it shifts into the indirect structure with de + infinitive that you see in this sentence.
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