"I read that in the press."
Translation:J'ai lu ça dans la presse.
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Is there a rule explaining why it's not "Je ça ai lu," the way it is "Je le ai vu"? (I omitted the contractions so it was clear what words I meant. I'm asking about the pronoun order.)
In this case, it's because of the grammatical function of the word. "Cela" ("or its informal counterpart, "ça") technically is a demonstrative pronoun, which doesn't act like normal direct/indirect objects in French. It's almost as though "ça" is acting like a known object. It usually has an antecedent, or a noun that a pronoun represents.
I was lucky guessing this. I have seen nothing to prepare myself for this word structure- and am searching for insight into the phrase. Can anyone help break this down?
So is le journal = the newspaper (a specific one), and les journaux = the press (general)?
