Breakdown of Pourquoi y faire attention au lieu de résoudre les énigmes ?
pourquoi
why
faire attention
to pay attention, to be careful
y
there (pronoun) / to it
au lieu de
instead of
résoudre
to solve
l'énigme
the riddle (f)
Questions & Answers about Pourquoi y faire attention au lieu de résoudre les énigmes ?
Why is the pronoun y used here?
It replaces the thing being paid attention to. The phrase in French is faire attention à (to pay attention to). Because it uses the preposition à followed by an inanimate object, we replace that entire à + [object] phrase with the pronoun y.
Why does y come right before faire?
Object pronouns almost always go directly before the verb they are logically attached to. Here, the action is the infinitive faire, so y is placed right in front of it, giving us y faire attention.
Why does the sentence use the infinitive faire instead of a conjugated verb like faisons or faites?
Using pourquoi directly followed by an infinitive is a natural way to ask a general or rhetorical question in French. It translates exactly to 'Why pay attention' without needing a specific subject like 'we' or 'you'.
Why is résoudre in the infinitive form?
It follows the phrase au lieu de (instead of). In French, when a verb directly follows a preposition like de, à, sans, or pour, that verb must always be in the infinitive form.
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