Learn French: Ils sont reconnaissants, et nous le sommes aussi.

Ils sont reconnaissants, et nous le sommes aussi.

They are grateful, and we are too.

Breakdown of Ils sont reconnaissants, et nous le sommes aussi.

we / us (object pronoun)

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils sont reconnaissants, et nous le sommes aussi.

Why is there a le in nous le sommes aussi when English just says 'we are too'?

In French, you cannot usually end a sentence with a hanging verb like être (to be) without a complement. You must express what you are. The neuter pronoun le stands in for the adjective reconnaissants from the first half of the sentence. It functions similarly to saying 'we are so too' in formal English.

Since reconnaissants is plural, shouldn't we use les instead of le?

No, because le here is a neuter pronoun. When you replace an adjective, a general state, or an entire idea rather than a specific noun, you always use the invariable le. It never agrees in gender or number, so it never changes to la or les, even though nous and reconnaissants are plural.

If I wanted to say 'they are grateful for it', would I use le as well?

No, because the required preposition changes. To be grateful for something is être reconnaissant de something. Because of the de, you must use the pronoun en to replace the thing you are grateful for. So 'they are grateful for it' would be ils en sont reconnaissants.