Breakdown of La haie était très haute, mais il refusait de la tailler.
être
to be
il
he
mais
but
très
very
la
her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)
haut
high, tall
refuser
to refuse
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
la haie
the hedge
tailler
to trim
Questions & Answers about La haie était très haute, mais il refusait de la tailler.
Why is refusait in the imperfect tense rather than the passé composé?
The imperfect is used here to show an ongoing state of mind or a continuous attitude in the past. While your current lesson focuses on using the imperfect with depuis for ongoing duration, the core concept applies here too: using refusait implies his refusal was an ongoing stance over a period of time, rather than a single, isolated
Why is it La haie and not L'haie?
Why do we need the word de in refusait de la tailler?
Many French verbs require a specific preposition before a following infinitive verb. The verb refuser must be followed by de. The fixed structure you should memorize is refuser de faire quelque chose (to refuse to do something).
Why does the pronoun la go right before tailler instead of before refusait?
When a sentence has a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, the direct object pronoun almost always goes immediately before the infinitive it belongs to. Because the action being done to the hedge is the trimming, la is placed right before tailler.
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