Word
Le passager donne sa déclaration à la douane, et l'agent le laisse partir.
Meaning
The passenger gives his declaration to customs, and the agent lets him go.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Le passager donne sa déclaration à la douane, et l'agent le laisse partir.
et
and
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
le passager
the passenger
Questions & Answers about Le passager donne sa déclaration à la douane, et l'agent le laisse partir.
Why does the pronoun le go before laisse instead of before partir?
Normally, when a sentence has a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, the object pronoun goes right before the infinitive (for example: il veut le faire). However, laisser is a notable exception! When using laisser + infinitive, the pronoun representing the person allowed to do the action is placed before laisser. That is why we say il le laisse partir instead of il laisse le partir.
Why is partir translated as 'go' here instead of 'leave'?
Since le passager is masculine, shouldn't it be son déclaration?
No, because French possessive adjectives always agree with the noun being owned, not the person who owns it. Déclaration is a feminine noun, so it must take the feminine possessive sa, even though the passenger (the owner) is masculine.
Does la douane refer to the customs officer?