Learn French: Ils voient le chef mener temporairement l'équipe. - They see the boss temporarily leading the team.

Ils voient le chef mener temporairement l'équipe.

They see the boss temporarily leading the team.

Breakdown of Ils voient le chef mener temporairement l'équipe.

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

voir

to see

le chef

the boss / the manager

l'équipe

the team (f)

Questions & Answers about Ils voient le chef mener temporairement l'équipe.

Why is mener in the infinitive here instead of an '-ing' word like in English?

In French, verbs of perception like voir (to see) and entendre (to hear) are followed directly by an infinitive when you observe someone doing an action. Even though English uses the present participle ('leading'), French requires the infinitive mener, never the -ant form.

This lesson focuses on pour + time expression. Why isn't pour used in this sentence?

The adverb temporairement (temporarily) already expresses a limited, intended duration, so pour isn't needed. If you wanted to state the exact intended time frame, you would drop the adverb and use pour instead, such as mener l'équipe pour un mois (to lead the team for a month).

Where do you place the person doing the action in this kind of sentence?

The person doing the action (le chef) goes right between the conjugated perception verb (voient) and the infinitive (mener). This creates a very common French structure: perception verb + noun + infinitive.

Does le chef always mean a cook?

Not at all! While English borrowed the word specifically for cooking, le chef simply means 'the chief' or 'the head'. In a standard French workplace, le chef is very commonly used to mean the boss, manager, or team leader.