Breakdown of Lis la question avant d'y répondre.
la question
the question
lire
to read
répondre
to answer / to reply
y
there (pronoun) / to it
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
Questions & Answers about Lis la question avant d'y répondre.
Why do we use y to mean "it" here instead of la?
In French, the verb to answer is répondre à. Because it takes the preposition à, you can't use a direct object pronoun like la. Instead, we use the pronoun y to replace à plus an inanimate object (like la question).
Why does de become d' before y?
Why is répondre in the infinitive here?
It follows the phrase avant de (before). In French, when a verb immediately follows a preposition like de, à, pour, or sans, it must be in the infinitive form. English uses the "-ing" form ("before answering"), but French uses the infinitive.
Doesn't the tu command form usually drop the final 's'? Why does Lis still have one?
You only drop the final 's' for the tu command form of verbs that end in -er (like mange or regarde) and for the verb aller (va). Because lire is an -re verb, its tu form (lis) keeps the 's'.
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