Breakdown of Je ne le connais pourtant pas, ce long détour.
je
I
ne
not (used before the verb)
pas
not (used after the verb)
ce
this (before a noun)
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
connaître
to know (be familiar with)
long
long
pourtant
yet, however
le détour
the detour
Questions & Answers about Je ne le connais pourtant pas, ce long détour.
Why do we have both le and ce long détour in the same sentence?
This is an example of right dislocation, which is the main focus of this lesson. The speaker uses the direct object pronoun le to refer to the detour early on, and then adds ce long détour at the very end to clarify or emphasize what that pronoun means. It is extremely common in spoken French and creates a natural conversational tone, much like saying 'I do not know it however, this long detour' in English.
Why is pourtant placed between the verb and pas?
In simple tenses, many common adverbs are placed immediately after the conjugated verb. When the sentence is negative, this means the adverb gets sandwiched right between the verb (connais) and the second part of the negation (pas). While you could grammatically put pourtant at the beginning of the sentence, tucking it inside the verb phrase flows very naturally in everyday French.
Could I use a form of savoir here instead of connais?
No, you must use connaître in this context. As a quick refresher, connaître is used for expressing familiarity with people, places, or things. Since the direct object here is a physical route (ce long détour), it requires connaître. You use savoir for knowing facts, knowing a subordinate clause, or knowing how to perform an action.
How do I know whether to use le, la, or lui to double the noun here?
The added pronoun must perfectly match both the gender and the grammatical role of the noun phrase it doubles. The word détour is a masculine singular noun, and because the verb connaître takes a direct object directly without any preposition, you need the masculine singular direct object pronoun, which is le. If the verb required an indirect object with the preposition à, you would use lui instead.
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