Questions & Answers about Le chef est furieux et je le suis aussi.
Why can't I translate "I am too" literally and just say et je suis aussi?
In English, we can leave the sentence hanging on the verb "to be," but French requires a placeholder for the missing information. Because you are avoiding the repetition of the adjective furieux, you must use the neuter pronoun le to represent that state. Literally, you are saying "and I it am too."
If a woman is speaking, should she change the pronoun to match her gender and say je la suis?
I've seen le chef translated as "the cook." Does it really mean "the boss" here?
What is the grammatical role of le in this sentence? Is it a direct object?
Not quite. While it is placed exactly where a direct object would go (right in front of the conjugated verb suis), it is actually a predicate attribute. This simply means it is a pronoun that links back to the subject to describe its state, acting as a stand-in for the adjective furieux.