Breakdown of Il faut s'occuper des bébés nouveau-nés à la maternité.
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
le bébé
the baby
il
it (impersonal subject)
falloir
to be necessary / must (impersonal)
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
s'occuper
to take care of, to look after
nouveau-né
newborn
la maternité
the maternity ward
Questions & Answers about Il faut s'occuper des bébés nouveau-nés à la maternité.
Why does nés have an 's' in nouveau-nés, but nouveau does not?
What would happen to nouveau-nés if we were explicitly talking about baby girls?
Why is Il faut translated as "We must" here instead of "It is necessary"?
Il faut is an impersonal expression that literally means "it is necessary" or "one must." In natural English, we often translate this as a general "we must" or "you have to" to sound less clunky, even though the French isn't technically using the pronoun nous (we).
Why use des bébés instead of les bébés if the English says "the newborn babies"?
The verb s'occuper (to take care) must be followed by the preposition de. When you combine de with the plural definite article les (the), they contract to form des. So, you are grammatically saying s'occuper + de + les bébés.
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