Breakdown of Je t'encourage à essayer le karaté.
je
I
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
te
you, yourself (object pronoun)
essayer
to try
encourager à
to encourage to
le karaté
the karate
Questions & Answers about Je t'encourage à essayer le karaté.
Why is there an à between encourage and essayer?
In French, the verb encourager requires the preposition à when it is followed by an action. The set phrase is encourager quelqu'un à faire quelque chose (to encourage someone to do something). You can't just put the two verbs next to each other like you sometimes can in English.
Is the pronoun t' a direct or indirect object here?
It is a direct object pronoun meaning "you". The structure is encourager quelqu'un (to encourage someone). Even though there is an à later in the sentence, that preposition connects the verb to the action (essayer), not to the person being encouraged.
I learned that essayer is followed by de. Why isn't it essayer de le karaté?
You use de when essayer is followed by another verb (an infinitive), like essayer de dormir (to try to sleep). Here, karaté is a noun, so it just takes its normal article (le) without any extra preposition.
Why use le karaté instead of du karaté?
Because of the verb essayer (to try). You are trying the specific sport of karate as a whole concept, which takes the definite article le. If the sentence used the verb faire (to do), it would take the partitive article instead: faire du karaté (to do karate).
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