Breakdown of Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
Questions & Answers about Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
Y is a pronoun that usually replaces:
- à + a thing / place, or
- sometimes dans / sur / en + a thing / place (depending on context).
Here it refers to le menu du soir (the evening menu) in the sense of “on it / from it / there”:
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
→ The waiter explains the evening menu, and we choose a simple dish *from it.*
You know what y stands for from the previous context: the only logical “place/thing” to choose a dish on/from is le menu du soir.
If you spell it out instead of using y, you might say:
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous choisissons un plat simple sur le menu.
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous choisissons un plat simple dans ce menu.
You can say it without y, and it is grammatically correct:
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous choisissons un plat simple.
However, the nuance changes:
- With y: it’s clear that you are choosing the dish on/from that menu.
- Without y: it’s simply “we choose a simple dish”; from where is only understood indirectly from context.
In normal conversation, both are possible.
Including y just makes the link to le menu du soir more explicit and more idiomatic in French.
De le contracts to du in French.
- de + le = du
- de + les = des
So literally you would have:
- le menu de le soir → this is never said
- It must contract to le menu du soir.
This pattern is the same in many other expressions:
- le livre du professeur = le livre de le professeur
- les amis du voisin = les amis de le voisin
- le prix du menu = le prix de le menu
Le menu du soir is simply the evening menu—the menu offered for the dinner service.
Nuance:
- le menu alone: the menu, with no time specified.
- le menu du jour: the menu of the day, often a fixed-price daily special (like “today’s set menu”).
- le menu du soir: the menu specifically available in the evening (dinner).
So du soir specifies when this menu applies, not anything “fancy”; it’s just “the evening one” as opposed to the lunch menu (menu du midi) or menu of the day (menu du jour).
Yes, the article changes the nuance:
Le serveur explique le menu du soir…
→ The waiter explains the evening menu…
Here, le suggests a specific waiter that is already identified in the situation (the one serving your table, the one everyone is aware of).Un serveur explique le menu du soir…
→ A waiter explains the evening menu…
This introduces the waiter for the first time, as one among others, not previously known in the story.
In a typical narrative about your meal:
- Le serveur = the waiter serving you (natural choice).
Yes:
- le serveur = male waiter
- la serveuse = female waitress
Both are standard. You choose based on the person’s gender:
- La serveuse explique le menu du soir, et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
If you don’t know or don’t want to specify gender, French currently doesn’t have a widely used neutral professional form for this; people often still default to le serveur in general statements, but for a specific person you match their gender.
French is more flexible with commas before et than English.
Here, the comma is acceptable because we are linking two separate clauses that each have their own subject and verb:
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir,
- et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
You could also omit the comma:
- Le serveur explique le menu du soir et nous y choisissons un plat simple.
Both are correct. The comma can signal a slightly clearer pause between the two actions, but it’s not mandatory.
Both nous choisissons and on choisit can mean “we choose”, but:
- nous is the standard grammatical “we”.
- on (literally “one”) is very commonly used in spoken French as “we”.
Nuance:
- Nous choisissons un plat simple.
→ Slightly more formal or written style, or careful speech. - On choisit un plat simple.
→ More informal, everyday conversation.
In a written example or textbook sentence, nous choisissons is very typical. In casual conversation in France, on choisit would be more natural.
Yes, the position of simple changes the nuance:
un plat simple
- Literally: a simple dish.
- Focus on the quality/type of the dish: uncomplicated, not elaborate, maybe few ingredients.
- Neutral description of the dish itself.
un simple plat
- More like: just a dish / only a dish.
- simple before the noun often means “mere / only / not much”, reducing the importance of the noun.
- It sounds like you are downplaying it: “It’s just a dish, nothing more.”
In your sentence, un plat simple is the natural, neutral choice: you are describing the dish as uncomplicated, not minimizing its importance.
Both simple and facile can translate to “easy/simple” in English, but they’re used differently:
simple describing a dish/meal/menu usually means:
- Not complicated
- Not fancy or elaborate
- Few ingredients, straightforward
facile is “easy” mainly for:
- Tasks/activities: un exercice facile, un travail facile
- Sometimes easy to do/make: une recette facile à préparer
So:
- un plat simple = plain, uncomplicated, modest dish (natural here)
- un plat facile = would sound like “an easy dish” in the sense of easy to cook, but you almost never describe the dish you order at a restaurant this way.
Yes, you can use the passé composé:
- Le serveur a expliqué le menu du soir, et nous y avons choisi un plat simple.
→ The waiter explained the evening menu, and we chose a simple dish from it.
Difference in feel:
Present tense (original):
- Often used in storytelling as the “historical present”.
- Makes the scene feel vivid and immediate, as if it’s happening right now.
Passé composé:
- Neutral past narration about a completed event.
- Feels more like a straightforward report of what happened.
No, nous choisissons y un plat simple is incorrect word order.
French object pronouns (including y) usually go before the conjugated verb:
- Nous y choisissons un plat simple. ✅
If there is an infinitive, y goes before the infinitive:
- Nous allons y choisir un plat simple. ✅
(We are going to choose a simple dish there/from it.)
Basic rule:
- One conjugated verb → pronoun before that verb:
Nous y choisissons… - Verb + infinitive → pronoun before the infinitive:
Nous allons y choisir…
Several options are possible, for example:
Le serveur nous explique le menu du soir, et nous choisissons un plat simple.
(Here, nous becomes the indirect object of explique: “explains the evening menu *to us”.)Le serveur explique le menu du soir, et nous choisissons un plat simple sur ce menu.
(No y; we explicitly say sur ce menu.)Le serveur explique le menu du soir, puis nous choisissons un plat simple.
(Using puis “then” to mark sequence.)
All of these are grammatical and natural; the original version with y is particularly concise and idiomatic.