"He talks directly to his children."

Translation: Il parle à ses enfants directement.

[tusharbajaj]

can directement be placed after parle

[Sitesurf]

Yes.

[HRH1793]

"Il parle directement aux ses enfants" I knew it looked wrong but I tried it anyway. Why isn't 'aux' used even though there's a plural?

[Sitesurf]

"aux" is the contraction of 'à+les', so if you add "ses", it is one determiner to many (to the his children)

[Henniez]

my dictionary says parler avec can also be used here, or is the problematic in combination with directly?

[Sitesurf]

"parler à" is "talk to", meaning that the children may not reply at all, just listen

"parler avec" is "talk with", meaning there is a conversation

[ParvizHajiyev]

Hello Sitesurf, is it possible to design a course specifically for verbs that are used in combination with à or de?

[Lafayste]

Sitesurf, we have seen usage of parler without the preposition à. An e.g is "Personne ne me parle" "nobody talks to me" and therefore believed no preposition is needed. Please comment.

[ElGusso]

That is because in "Personne ne me parle", the object is a pronoun, i.e. "me". Reminder : a grammatical "object" is the part of the sentence that doesn't do the action (here, it is the person that is talked to).

Yet, that pronoun is an indirect pronoun, i.e. the object is used with a preposition. Let's see with another object, "Mark" for instance (it's easier than with "me"):

• "Personne ne parle à Mark" = "Nobody talks to Mark". ("Personne ne parle Mark" could only make sense if "Mark" were a language! ;-)

Now, if we were already talking about Mark, and I don't wanna repeat the name, I can use a pronoun instead and say :

• Personne ne lui parle = Nobody talks to him. As you can see, the preposition "à" has disappeared, whereas it's still visible in English (to him).

So, that "lui" is an indirect pronoun, used for an indirect object.

Thing is, "lui" is a specific form of indirect third-person pronoun (for "him" or "her", pssibly "it"). The direct pronoun for 3d persons is "le" or "la". But with "me", there is no difference bteween direct and indirect forms, so maybe that's why you're confused. Look :

• "Il me voit" (He sees me): "voir" is a direct verb, like the English "to see", i.e. no preposition is needed. And the pronoun is "me".

• "Personne ne me parle" (Nobody talks to me): "parler à" is indirect, yet the pronoun is the same, also "me".

But if you want/need to emphasize you can see it's indirect :

• "Tour le monde te parle, mais personne ne parle à moi !" (Everybody talks to you, but no-one talks to me). This would be to insist ; in English you'd have to use your tone to emphasize the "to me" part.

[Lafayste]

I'm furious about the use of preposition "à" here. Duolingo haven't used to this point (to my knowledge) the verb "parler" with this preposition. What is your take mates?

[Sitesurf]

"parler" has several constructions:

• parler + language: no preposition = je parle (le) français or with preposition "en" = je parle en français
• parler à quelqu'un = je parle à mes enfants (I talk to my children)
• parler de quelqu'un = je parle de mes enfants (I talk of/about my children)

[Lafayste]

Thanks for the prompt response and I do agree with you. But what about this;"Personne ne me parle"? why no preposition is here or negatives also have different arrangement. By know we are, as French Lang students, acquainted with the endless French language surprises.

[Sitesurf]

"personne ne me parle" uses pronoun "me" as an indirect object of a verb constructed with preposition "à"

• personne ne me parle = personne ne [à+je] parle

It just happens that "me" is both the direct object (= me) and the indirect object (= to me) form of "je".

[Lafayste]

Marvelous! Thanks a lot.

[Anneguus]

what is the difference between 'ces' and 'ses' I always mix them up!

[Sitesurf]

If you get "ces" or "ses" in dictation, you cannot hear any difference.

• ces enfants = these/those children (demonstrative)
• ses enfants = his/her/its children (possessive)

[royrituraj0]

"Je vais directement chez mes parents" was translated at "I am going directly to my parents' house".

By that logic, shouldnt this be "Il parle directement ses enfants?"

[Sitesurf]

You missed the required preposition: parler à - il parle directement à ses enfants.

[JBishop13]

I thought "talk" was closer to "dire" than "parler", but it didn't accept "Il dit...". Does anyone know why this might be?

[Sitesurf]

"dire" needs an object.

[JBishop13]

Wouldn't "children" be the direct object?

[Sitesurf]

In both languages, "children/enfants" is an indirect object.

• il dit quelque chose à ses enfants = he is saying something to his children
• il parle à ses enfants = he speaks/talks to his children.

[JBishop13]

Ohh, okay. Thank you!

[ElGusso]

Nope it's indirect, hence the "to"/"à" (although the presence of such a preposition isn't always compulsory in English, e.g. He gives his friend a present / He gives a present to his friend).

To talk/parler is rarely used with direct objects, only with languages or the likes.

Whereas "to say/dire" demands a (direct) object, whether in,the form of a noun (dire quelque chose) or another verbal clause (dire de faire quelque chose / que...).

"Parler / to talk" can be used alone : "Maintenant j'écris mais d'habitude je parle (beaucoup)".

[ebrown130901]

If I wanted to say 'He talks directly to HER children', how would I emphasise this?

[Sitesurf]

"Il parle directement à ses enfants à elle".