Learn Hardcore French: Paul félicite la gagnante et lui dit : « Tu donnes de l’espoir à toute l’équipe. » - Paul congratulates the winner and says to her, “You give hope to the whole team.”

Because the person who won is female, the noun is put in the feminine form gagnante and the article becomes la. If the winner were male, you would say Paul félicite le gagnant.

Why is there no à after félicite (why not félicite à la gagnante)?

The verb féliciter is directly transitive in French. Its basic structure is:

féliciter quelqu’un = to congratulate someone

So you say:

Paul félicite la gagnante. ✅
not
Paul félicite à la gagnante. ❌

If you add a reason, you can use pour or de:

Paul félicite la gagnante pour sa victoire.
Paul félicite la gagnante de sa victoire.

In et lui dit, what does lui mean, and why do we use lui?

Here, lui is an indirect object pronoun meaning to her / to him.

Full form: Paul dit à la gagnante
With pronoun: Paul lui dit

Lui replaces à la gagnante. French uses lui for both masculine and feminine in the singular:

Paul parle à Marc → Paul lui parle. (to him)
Paul parle à Marie → Paul lui parle. (to her)

So lui dit = says to her in this sentence.

Could I say Paul félicite la gagnante et dit à la gagnante instead of et lui dit?

Grammatically, yes, but it sounds repetitive and heavy:

Paul félicite la gagnante et dit à la gagnante : … ✅ but clumsy

French normally avoids repeating the noun when it’s obvious from context, and uses a pronoun instead:

Paul félicite la gagnante et lui dit : … ✅ natural

So lui keeps the sentence smoother and more idiomatic.

Why is it Tu donnes and not Vous donnez?

French has two ways to say you:

tu (familiar, singular) – to a friend, family member, child, etc.
vous (formal singular or plural you) – to show respect or when talking to more than one person

Donnes is the tu form of donner in the present tense:

tu donnes
vous donnez

So Paul is using the familiar tu, probably because he knows the winner well or is speaking in a warm, informal way. With vous, the sentence would be:

Vous donnez de l’espoir à toute l’équipe.

Why do we say Tu donnes and not Tu donne?

In the present tense, regular -er verbs like donner conjugate with -es for tu:

je donne
tu donnes
il / elle donne

The final -s in donnes is not pronounced, but it must be written. So:

Tu donnes ✅ (correct spelling)
Tu donne ❌ (spelling mistake)

What does de l’espoir mean exactly, and why use de l’?

Espoir = hope. Here, de l’ is the partitive article (some), used with singular nouns starting with a vowel sound:

du
- masculine noun (du pain)
de la
- feminine noun (de la chance)
de l’
- vowel / silent h (de l’espoir, de l’eau)

So de l’espoir literally means some hope, often just translated as hope in English:

Tu donnes de l’espoir = You give (some) hope.

It’s uncountable here, so you don’t put it in the plural.

Why is it toute l’équipe and not tout l’équipe?

Tout changes form to agree with the noun it modifies:

tout
- masculine singular (tout le groupe)
toute
- feminine singular (toute la journée)
tous
- masculine plural (tous les joueurs)
toutes
- feminine plural (toutes les équipes)

Équipe is feminine singular (une équipe), so you must use toute:

toute l’équipe = the whole team / all the team

So toute l’équipe ✅, tout l’équipe ❌.

What is the function of à in à toute l’équipe?

Here, à introduces an indirect object, roughly to or for in English:

donner quelque chose à quelqu’un = to give something to someone

So the structure is:

Tu donnes de l’espoir à toute l’équipe.
= You give hope to the whole team.

It indicates who receives the hope.

Why is the direct speech written with : « Tu donnes de l’espoir à toute l’équipe. » and a capital T?

French conventions for direct speech:

A colon introduces what someone says:
Paul … lui dit :
French often uses guillemets « » instead of English-style quotes.
The first word inside the guillemets usually starts with a capital letter:
« Tu donnes de l’espoir… »

So:
Paul félicite la gagnante et lui dit : « Tu donnes de l’espoir à toute l’équipe. »
is the standard way to punctuate reported speech in French.