Question 1

Why does it say la jambe and le genou instead of sa jambe and son genou?

Accepted Answer

In French, when it is obvious who the body part belongs to, you generally use the definite article (le, la, les) instead of a possessive adjective like sa or son. Since the girl is the one doing the raising and bending, it is naturally assumed she is moving her own leg and knee.

Question 2

Why is there a grave accent on lève but not in its infinitive form lever?

Accepted Answer

Lever is a stem-changing verb. When the verb ending is silent (like the -e in lève), the unaccented e in the stem changes to è so it can be pronounced clearly. You will see this exact same pattern in other everyday verbs like acheter (elle achète) and peser (elle pèse).

Question 3

Does plier mean both to bend and to fold?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can use plier for bending a joint or body part, as in plier le genou, but it is also the standard verb for folding physical objects, such as plier une lettre (to fold a letter) or plier le linge (to fold the laundry).

Question 4

If she were raising someone else's leg, how would this sentence change?

Accepted Answer

If the body part doesn't belong to the subject doing the action, French usually adds an indirect object pronoun to show whose body it is, while still keeping the definite article. For example, 'She raises his leg' would be Elle lui lève la jambe. Because there is no indirect object pronoun like lui in our sentence, we know for sure it is her own leg.

La fille lève la jambe et plie le genou.

Breakdown of La fille lève la jambe et plie le genou.

Questions & Answers about La fille lève la jambe et plie le genou.

Learn La fille lève la jambe et plie le genou and more in French