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- "Je vais acheter un appareil …
"Je vais acheter un appareil photo à ma fille."
Translation:I am going to buy a camera for my daughter.
January 2, 2013
13 Comments
Ryan47435765
594
'ma fille' is the indirect object here, thus 'à'. i.e. this sentence actually translates literally as "I'm going to buy my daughter a camera."
Ryan47435765
594
That's because the translation of the preposition 'à' into English is not one-to-one. 'à' is being used here to mark the indirect object of this sentence. In the context of an indirect object prepositional phrase, English makes distinctions about which preposition to use based on the type of indirect object that French doesn't, therefore in some cases 'à' is translated as 'to' and sometimes 'for'.