Tu peux encourager Marie avec tes mots.

You can encourage Marie with your words.

Breakdown of Tu peux encourager Marie avec tes mots.

• tu: you
• Marie: Marie
• avec: with
• pouvoir: to be able
• tes: your
• encourager: to encourage
• le mot: the word

Questions & Answers about Tu peux encourager Marie avec tes mots.

Why is tu used instead of vous here?

In French, tu is the singular informal pronoun, used with friends, family, or people you’re close to. Vous can be used to show respect or address more than one person. Since this sentence is casual and directed at one individual, tu fits best.

How do I pronounce encourager?

You can break it down as on-koo-ra-jay. The stress is on the last -jay sound, and you pronounce the letter g like the soft “s” in “vision,” followed by the er which sounds like ay.

Why do we say avec tes mots instead of something like avec tes paroles?

While paroles can mean “words” too, mots is more common in daily usage when referring generally to the words you speak. Paroles can sometimes convey lyrics or more formal statements, so mots is the simpler, more direct choice here.

What does peux come from?

Peux is a conjugation of the verb pouvoir (meaning “to be able to”). In the present tense for tu, pouvoir becomes tu peux.

Why is there no direct object pronoun referring to Marie?

In French, you can mention the person’s name directly after the verb (encourager Marie) without needing a direct object pronoun like l’ or la if you’re specifically naming that person. If you replaced Marie with a pronoun, it would become Tu peux l’encourager, but here the speaker chose to explicitly say Marie.