"Je vous la laisse."
Translation:I am leaving it to you.
71 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
firstly we havent really seen any future tenses yet, and secondly there is nothing in the sentence that denotes future is or should be used in the answer/translation...
Right lets try again! Laisser is contextual here.
"Je te laisse" = I leave you [to it];
"Je te la laisse" = I leave it [to] you.
The difference is in the context of either. The first has the meaning of leaving someone alone to get on with something:
"You're doing homework? I'll leave you to it."
The second, using the pronoun, could mean giving a specific person a task:
"John, I need the financial reports for the meeting tomorrow. I'll leave it to you."
Maybe the meanings are more/less subtle in some circumstances but each's grammatical structure seems enough to distinguish one from the other.
Also, it's discussed already here. And the downvoters could do better by giving their opinion.
Yes, I noted that they were distinguishable below, I just needed to see the former "I leave you to it" translated into French. Again, the discussions presented below by others weren't quite on the topic I was going for, which you seemed to update here. Thanks for putting this side by side this way, despite the two meanings being subtle. I see why I can't do it in French. At least more than my understanding of why they can't be interchanged in English.
I guess je vais vous la laisser would be future? I am not sure...but maybe duolingo is thinking that 'I leave it to you' implies the future. Like when a professor is assigning homework and states 'You can chose any method for this problem, I leave it to you'. It still sounds a little awkward though.
You're also right.
Je VAIS vous la laisser = I'm GOING TO leave it to you.
Sorry for the capital words. Just for explaining this sentence.
Notice that the tense in "I leave it to you" is technically present but implies future
In what way does this imply future? I am leaving it right here, right now. The tense is with what I am doing, not with what someone else might or might not do later after my action is completed.
At first, I wondered why both "Je vous la laisse" and "Je le lui donne" are correct, since the position of the direct and indirect objects are switched.
I found the answer:
When a verb is preceded by two Object Pronouns, the indirect comes first, except lui and leur.
http://fr.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070606235612AAXm2up
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/pro9.html#overview
I haven't got to that point yet, but it seems to be a useful information. Thanks!
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I remember Sitesurf posting this sentence;
"il le lui lit" to mean "he reads it to him/her"
so I assumed that direct object pronouns are placed first, so I was shocked with the order of this sentence, but you solved my problem
Thank you!
Interestingly, its the same in Asian languages such as hindi, gujurati and urdu (and maybe even farsi)
mey apko yeh chor raha hu - i am leaving this (with) you. literally - i you this leaving.
Though we can shift the objects around in these languages because context will tell you which is correct. I guess practice will help us remember this rule.
Why would "I WILL leave it to you" be right here? I don't see any future tense ...
Because, sometimes French uses the present simple to talk about something happening in the future; it's not that different from English I'm going home on sunday.
In many languages (including English), under the right context, this sentence has virtually the same meaning in both present/future tenses. switching tenses still looks wrong to me. e.g.: "je vais a Paris demain" would be translated as "I am going to Paris Tomorrow" even though it is obvious that we are talking about an action in the future....
But "I'm going home on Sunday," would be "je vais aller chez mois le dimanche" (right?) And the french construction aller+infinitive is considered a future tense, just like in English.
edit: Actually I guess "I'm going home on Sunday" would be "je vais chez moi le dimanche"? ... oops. Dunno if you would say that in French though.
I gave a response to a similar question in a different discussion thread (for the translation of "Je vous la laisse" as "I will leave her to you"). I'd like to know if my reasoning is correct, so here's a cut-and-paste of my response in hopes that someone can point me in the right direction if I'm way off:
I could be wrong, but I think they've used the present subjunctive tense in the "Je vous la laisse" translation. Both present tense and present subjunctive tense are "je laisse" in French, but one means "I leave" and the other means "I will leave" in English.
That said, I thought present subjunctive tense was supposed to be used when there is some amount of doubt, need, or impossibility to a statement (and in some other situations that don't seem relevant to this sentence). For example, "It is possible that I'll leave her to you" or "It is necessary that I'll leave her to you" would probably require the subjunctive tense. Without having a context to the sentence, it seems like the future tense ("je laisserai") would be a better choice here.
Someone answered this succinctly above. Just like in English we can use a present tense to denote a future action, for instance "I leave on Monday" (3 days from now) is just as suitable as "I will leave on Monday".
Can you reverse vous and la and say "Je la vous laisse" meaning "I leave you to it"?
The latter part is implied or you can embelish the statement with more information, i.e. *Je te laisse décider". To leave as in depart would use another verb like like "quitter" or "s'en aller".
I think that this sentence may be related to something called double object pronoun , hope this will help http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/objectpronouns.htm
I don't understand how this is a future tense sentence... There's no "aller" being conjugated.
Aller construction is future proche, i.e. "I will go to work". Future tense would be used where a future period is identified, i.e. "I will sell the picture next week".
Any suggestions for how to hear the difference between 'Je veux' and 'Je vous...' ?
You cannot really hear if it is "la" or "le" in this sentences. The sound quality is not that good.
Understand that language is a living breathing thing. You CANNOT translate sentences directly word for word. There is an understood future in this sentence. Think anout the best way we as English speakers would say the sentence and there you go. Language is flexible.
I recall hearing that the French often use present tense to denote the immediate future: e.g. Je vous appelez (demain) - I will call you (tomorrow)
Je vais vous appeler demain. Present tense Aller + infinitive = Future proche.
The "correct" translation that duolingo gave me is "I am leaving you it". That syrely needs to he corrected.
Why doesn't "I'm leaving you there" work? La also can mean there so I thought the translation would be acceptable.
"Là" requires the accent to mean "there", otherwise it functions as a pronoun here.
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hmm, I have to disagree somehow.
'là ' is an adverb on its own, and can be used to mean 'there' without any further adverbs.
Even Larousse lists it as an adverb.
Yes, you're right. And I'm wrong... well, we're both wrong in a sense. It doesn't have to come after a verb (e.g. it can be used after prepositions) & it can stand on its own. At least we managed to answer Charlotte's question.
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@Ronnie-JA: "Yes, you're right. And I'm wrong... well, we're both wrong..."
you're absolutely correct on this one.
'là ' could be used in a few different ways.
It does indeed make me happy that we managed a thorough answer to Charlotte's question and to our own lack of knowledge in some aspects.
Cheers!
Je vous le laisse. - this also works? le / la both mean "it" here, right? ...and my answer is " i leave you her." Duo accepts it.
(Click links above)
In these cases, there are examples of the "je... te... ??? laisse (???)" format. Here, the pronoun [it] before the verb laisser could stand in for a noun like "le choix" or "le travail" or "le devoir".
Just something for you to consider.
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I came for the exact same question. I have no idea what that sentence means. "I am leaving it for you" is a fair translation. How that sentence is the same as "I am leaving you her" blows my mind.
How would you say, "I am leaving you." ? Meaning... we are getting divorced. Why is the sentence not interpreted with this meaning?
