Word
C'est à elle de s'aligner pour le plongeon.
Meaning
It is up to her to align herself for the dive.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of C'est à elle de s'aligner pour le plongeon.
elle
she
pour
for
c'est
it is, that is
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
Questions & Answers about C'est à elle de s'aligner pour le plongeon.
Does c'est à elle de mean "it's her turn to" or "it's her duty to"?
It can mean both, depending on the context! The structure c'est à + [stress pronoun] + de + [infinitive] is a very common way to express whose turn or responsibility it is to do something. Here, "it is up to her" fits well, but "it's her turn to line up" is equally valid if they are taking turns on a diving board.
Why do we use elle here? Couldn't we use the indirect object pronoun lui, as we do for "to her" with many verbs?
No, because in the specific phrase c'est à..., the preposition à must be followed by a stress pronoun (like moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles). You cannot attach an indirect object pronoun to c'est. So, "it's his turn" is c'est à lui and "it's her turn" is c'est à elle.
The verb is in the infinitive (s'aligner). If I wanted to say "it's up to me to align myself", would it still be s'aligner?
No, the reflexive pronoun must always match the person doing the action, even when the verb is in the infinitive! If it were your turn, you would say: C'est à moi de m'aligner. Since the action here is being done by elle, the third-person reflexive pronoun se (shortened to s') is used.