Breakdown of Le bénévole nous a donné des cintres pour les vêtements à suspendre.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
des
some (plural indefinite)
pour
for
avoir
to have
le vêtement
the piece of clothing
donner
to give
le bénévole
the volunteer
à
to (passive infinitive after a noun)
le cintre
the hanger
suspendre
to hang
Questions & Answers about Le bénévole nous a donné des cintres pour les vêtements à suspendre.
Why do we use à suspendre here instead of just suspendre?
Could I use pour instead of à to say 'clothes to hang'?
Not directly after the noun in this way. If you said les vêtements pour suspendre, it would sound like the clothes themselves are going to hang something! However, you could rearrange the whole sentence to express purpose: Le bénévole nous a donné des cintres pour suspendre les vêtements (The volunteer gave us hangers in order to hang the clothes).
Why is nous placed before a donné?
As a quick refresher on object pronouns: nous acts as the indirect object here (meaning 'to us'). In French, object pronouns are placed immediately before the conjugated verb. Because this sentence is in the passé composé, the conjugated verb is the auxiliary a (from avoir), so nous goes directly in front of it.
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