Breakdown of Le prince espère que tu l'attendras afin de finir la quête.
tu
you (informal singular)
finir
to finish
attendre
to wait / to wait for
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
espérer
to hope
que
that (introducing a clause)
le prince
the prince
afin de
in order to
la quête
the quest
Questions & Answers about Le prince espère que tu l'attendras afin de finir la quête.
Why is attendras in the indicative mood instead of the subjunctive?
Why is the future tense attendras used here when in English we usually say "hopes that you wait"?
Why do we use the direct object pronoun l' here instead of the indirect lui?
In English, we wait "for" someone, which makes it tempting to use an indirect object pronoun in French. However, the French verb attendre is directly transitive, meaning it doesn't use a preposition. Therefore, we must use the direct object pronoun le, which contracts to l' before a vowel.
Why do we use afin de followed by the infinitive finir instead of afin que?
You use afin de plus an infinitive when the subject of the action remains the same. Here, tu is the one waiting and also the one finishing the quest. If the subjects were different, for example, if you waited so the prince could finish it, you would need to use afin que followed by the subjunctive.
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