Word
Cette bande aide la bille à rebondir.
Meaning
This cushion helps the billiard ball to bounce.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Cette bande aide la bille à rebondir.
ce
this (before a noun)
aider
to help
à
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
la bille
the billiard ball
Questions & Answers about Cette bande aide la bille à rebondir.
Why is there an à before rebondir?
In French, the verb aider requires the preposition à when it is followed by an infinitive verb. The structure is aider [quelqu'un ou quelque chose] à [faire quelque chose] (to help someone or something to do something).
Doesn't bande usually mean a band or strip? How does it mean "cushion" here?
Yes, bande generally means a strip, band, or tape. In the specific context of billiards or pool, it refers to the rubber strips lining the inside edge of the table, which are called cushions in English.
Why use bille for a billiard ball instead of balle?
In French, a balle is typically a small, bouncy, or somewhat soft ball (like for tennis or ping-pong), and a ballon is a large inflated ball (like for soccer). A bille specifically refers to a small, hard, solid sphere, such as a marble or a billiard ball.
Is la bille a direct or indirect object of aide?
It is a direct object. Even though aider is followed by à before the next verb, the noun being helped is direct (aider quelqu'un). If you replaced la bille with a pronoun, you would use the direct object pronoun la and write Cette bande l'aide à rebondir.