Language/French/Grammar/Use-of-neutral-le-where-no-equivalent-exists-in-English

Use of neutral le where no equivalent exists in English

Sometimes neutral le is required in French where English normally has no object pronoun at all, typically where the verb être + adjective/identifying expression are involved:

• N'ayez pas peur! J'étais en colère, mais je ne le suis plus (le refers to 'being angry')

Don't be frightened! I was angry, but I'm not any more

• Est-ce qu'elle est prête? Elle le sera dans un instant (le refers to 'being ready')

Is she ready? She will be in a moment

• Moi, je n'étais pas étonné, mais Myriam l'a été (le refers to 'being surprised')

I wasn't surprised, but Myriam was

Take some time to dive into these other pages after completing this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present & Prepositions.

Other Lessons

• Use of the definite article with titles
• Adjective—adjective compounds
• Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present
• Pronominal verbs without a reflexive interpretation
• Punctuation
• Position of direct and indirect object pronouns
• Colour adjective compounds
• The indirect object complement
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Verb forms — Introduction
• Compound Tenses
• Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Page numbers, bus numbers
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Restrictions on possible combinations