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Il est descendu pour chercher le harnais et le câblage.

Il est descendu pour chercher le harnais et le câblage.
He went down to look for the harness and the wiring.
From Lesson 450:Auxiliary switch with motion verbs (être vs. avoir)·French

Questions & Answers about Il est descendu pour chercher le harnais et le câblage.

Why does this sentence use est descendu instead of a descendu?
The verb descendre (to go down / to take down) changes its auxiliary verb depending on how it is used. Here, it is intransitive, meaning it does not take a direct object. He simply went down. When used intransitively as a verb of motion, it takes être. If he had taken something down, like a box, it would be transitive and take avoir (for example, Il a descendu la boîte).
Why is there no French word for 'for' after chercher?
In French, the verb chercher inherently means 'to look for' or 'to search for'. You do not need to add a preposition like pour after it. Adding one is a very common mistake for English speakers translating word-for-word.
Why is it le harnais and not l'harnais?
The word harnais begins with an aspirated H. Even though the H is silent in spoken French, it acts like a consonant for grammar rules. This means you cannot make an elision (dropping the vowel of le) or a liaison with the preceding word.
Is there a trick to remembering the gender of câblage?
Yes! Nouns ending in the suffix -age, which often indicates a process or collection (like wiring from wire), are almost always masculine in French. There are only a few common exceptions, like la plage, la page, and l'image.

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