Learn Hardcore French: Nous remercions toujours le facteur et la factrice, car ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage. - We always thank the mailman and the mailwoman, because they know the whole neighborhood well.

Nous remercions le facteur = We thank the mail carrier.
Here remercier takes the person as a direct object (no preposition):
remercier quelqu’un

You can also say:

Nous disons toujours merci au facteur.
Here dire merci takes à:
dire merci à quelqu’un

So:

Nous remercions le facteur (more direct, slightly more formal/neutral)
Nous disons merci au facteur (more explicit, a bit more “spoken-style”)

Both are correct; the sentence just chooses the concise verb remercier.

What tense and person is remercions?

Remercions is:

Verb: remercier
Tense: present tense
Person: 1st person plural
Pronoun: nous

So:

je remercie – I thank
tu remercies – you thank (singular)
il / elle remercie – he / she thanks
nous remercions – we thank
vous remerciez – you thank (plural / formal)
ils / elles remercient – they thank

Why is toujours placed after the verb in nous remercions toujours? Can it go somewhere else?

In French, most adverbs of frequency (like toujours, souvent, jamais) usually go after the conjugated verb:

Nous remercions toujours le facteur.

That’s the normal, neutral position.

Other possibilities:

Toujours, nous remercions le facteur.
This is possible but more emphatic/literary: you are insisting on always.

You would not normally say:

✗ Nous toujours remercions le facteur.

So for everyday French, keep toujours right after the verb:
Nous remercions toujours …

Why do we say le facteur et la factrice instead of just les facteurs?

French job titles are gendered:

le facteur – male mail carrier
la factrice – female mail carrier

If you say:

les facteurs – this can mean:
- a group of mail carriers (with at least one man), or
- mail carriers in general, in a generic way

In this sentence, we seem to be talking about two specific people, one man and one woman:

le facteur et la factrice – the (male) mail carrier and the (female) mail carrier

So the sentence highlights both genders separately, rather than just talking about a mixed group or people in general.

Why do we use le and la (definite articles) instead of nos or des in le facteur et la factrice?

In French, when you refer to known, specific people in your environment (like the usual mail carrier for your area), you naturally use definite articles:

le facteur – the mail carrier (the one for our neighborhood)
la factrice – the (female) mail carrier (again, a specific one)

Using other articles would change the meaning:

un facteur et une factrice – some (unspecified) mail carrier and mailwoman
des facteurs – (some) mail carriers, not clearly fixed or known individuals
nos facteurs – our mail carriers (emphasizing belonging to “us” as a group)

So le / la here works the same way as the in English when you mean specific people everyone in the context can identify.

Why is the pronoun ils used for le facteur et la factrice and not elles?

In French, when you have a mixed-gender group:

ils is used for masculine + feminine together
elles is used only if everyone is female

Here the group is:

le facteur (masculine)
la factrice (feminine)

Since there is at least one masculine noun, the pronoun must be ils:

le facteur et la factrice, car ils connaissent…

If both were female (for example deux factrices), you could use elles:

Les deux factrices sont très gentilles, car elles connaissent bien tout le voisinage.

Why do we say ils connaissent and not ils connaît or ils connaissons?

The subject ils is 3rd person plural, so the verb must also be 3rd person plural:

Conjugation of connaître in the present:

je connais
tu connais
il / elle connaît
nous connaissons
vous connaissez
ils / elles connaissent

So with ils, the only correct form is:

ils connaissent
✗ ils connaît – wrong person/number
✗ ils connaissons – mixing ils with the nous form

What is the difference between connaître and savoir, and why is connaissent used here?

Very broadly:

connaître = to be familiar with / to know (be acquainted with)
– used with people, places, works of art, etc.
connaître quelqu’un / quelque chose
savoir = to know (a fact) / to know how to do something
– used with clauses or infinitives:
savoir que…, savoir si…, savoir faire quelque chose

In the sentence:

ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage

They are familiar with or acquainted with all the neighbors / the neighborhood residents. These are people, not facts, so connaître is the right verb.

Using savoir here would be incorrect:

✗ ils savent bien tout le voisinage – wrong kind of object

What exactly does voisinage mean, and how is it different from quartier?

Voisinage comes from voisin (neighbor):

le voisinage = the neighborhood, the people who live near you, or the immediate area around you
It often has a nuance of neighbors as a social group.

Quartier is more geographical/administrative:

le quartier = the district, part of a town, an area of a city
(like neighborhood in a more spatial sense)

In ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage, the idea is:

They know all the people / all the neighbors in the area.

Grammatically:

voisinage is masculine singular:
- tout le voisinage – all the neighborhood
- You would not say ✗ toute la voisinage

Why is bien used here, and where does it go in the sentence?

Bien here means well.

ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage
= they know the whole neighborhood well

Position:

Adverbs like bien normally come after the conjugated verb:
- ils connaissent bien…

If you wanted to insist more, you could add très:

ils connaissent très bien tout le voisinage

But the neutral, simple structure is exactly what you see:
[subject] + [verb] + bien + [rest of the sentence]

What is the difference between car and parce que in this sentence?

Both car and parce que can mean because, but:

car:
- more written, a bit more formal or literary
- often used to give a reason or explanation in a more detached way
parce que:
- the most common spoken form
- completely neutral in everyday oral French

So:

… le facteur et la factrice, car ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage.
sounds slightly more written.

In everyday conversation you would very naturally say:

Nous remercions toujours le facteur et la factrice, parce qu’ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage.

Both are correct; it’s mostly a stylistic choice.

Can you drop nous and just say remercions toujours le facteur… like in Spanish or Italian?

No. In standard French, you cannot normally drop subject pronouns. They are required:

Nous remercions… – correct
✗ Remercions toujours le facteur… – sounds like an imperative (Let’s thank the mail carrier…) rather than a normal statement.

French verbs often do not clearly show who the subject is (many forms sound the same), so the subject pronoun is necessary:

nous remercions = we thank
vous remerciez = you (pl/formal) thank

Without nous, you cannot know it’s we.

Could we rephrase this as Nous disons toujours merci au facteur et à la factrice? Is that correct, and what changes?

Yes, that is correct:

Nous disons toujours merci au facteur et à la factrice, car ils connaissent bien tout le voisinage.

Differences:

Structure:
- remercier quelqu’un – direct object: Nous remercions le facteur.
- dire merci à quelqu’un – indirect object with à: Nous disons merci au facteur.
Style:
- remercier is a bit more concise, slightly more formal/neutral.
- dire merci feels a bit more concrete: you picture people actually saying “thank you”.

Meaning-wise, both sentences express practically the same idea.