Breakdown of Ce livre appartient à ma sœur.
le livre
the book
la sœur
the sister
mon
my
appartenir
to belong
Questions & Answers about Ce livre appartient à ma sœur.
If I want to say "This book belongs to her," how do I replace à ma sœur with a pronoun?
You use the indirect object pronoun lui, giving you Ce livre lui appartient. Because appartenir connects to its object with the preposition à (making it an indirect transitive verb), it requires an indirect object pronoun. Note that lui is used for both "him" and "her" in this case.
The current lesson is about prepositional meaning shifts. Can appartenir be used with the preposition de?
Yes, but it completely changes the meaning and structure! In the formal impersonal expression il appartient à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose, it means "it is up to someone to do something" or "it is someone's right or responsibility to do something". For example: Il lui appartient de choisir (It is up to her to choose).
How does appartenir à compare to the simpler phrase être à for expressing possession?
Does the meaning shift if this verb is used reflexively as s'appartenir?