Breakdown of Il a du mal à dormir la nuit.
dormir
to sleep
la nuit
the night
avoir du mal à
to have trouble
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Questions & Answers about Il a du mal à dormir la nuit.
Why do we need the preposition à before dormir?
This sentence uses the expression avoir du mal (to have trouble). Whenever this expression is followed by an action, it requires the preposition à plus the infinitive form of the verb. It is one of many French expressions that lock you into using à before the next verb!
English uses the '-ing' form ('sleeping'). Why does French use the infinitive dormir?
In French, whenever a verb directly follows a preposition like à, de, or sans, it must be in the infinitive form. French never uses its '-ing' equivalent (the present participle) after these prepositions.
Why is it du mal instead of just mal?
In this phrase, mal is being used as a masculine noun meaning 'trouble' or 'difficulty'. Because it is an uncountable concept, it needs the partitive article du (meaning 'some'). You are literally saying he has 'some trouble'.
Why is 'at night' translated simply as la nuit without a preposition like à?