0

I saw the following phrase in a duolingo "story"

Vous pouvez le prendre en photo pour moi ?

I was quite sure that this should be 'lui', as an indirect object, rather than le.

Am I wrong? Are le/lui not as analogous to Portuguese (ele/para ele) as I thought?

jlliagre
  • 148,505
  • 9
  • 106
  • 237
josinalvo
  • 323
  • 1
  • 8
  • 1
    Le is the direct object or prendre en photo (and not indirect). – None Jul 14 '23 at 16:48
  • 1
    You need to look up "prendre quelqu'un en photo". There is no indirect object. And I would not confuse this by asking about Portuguese. The direct object in Portuguese is a, o, as, os and lhe. Also, Iberian Port. and Braz. Pt. are quite different as regards objects. – Lambie Jul 14 '23 at 17:56
  • Pode fotografá-lo para mim? – jlliagre Jul 15 '23 at 00:47

2 Answers2

2

The correct expression is indeed

Vous pouvez le prendre en photo pour moi ?

To mean: Can you take a picture of him for me?.

As @None says, the French le corresponds to the English him here. The sentence Vous pouvez lui prendre en photo pour moi is not correct and not heard or read, as far as I know.

Frank
  • 9,199
  • 1
  • 20
  • 39
1

Duolingo is correct here.

Vous pouvez le prendre en photo pour moi ? (Can you take a picture of him for me?)

Let's compare this to a similar sentence with "lui":

Vous pouvez lui dire de s'avancer? (Can you tell him to move forward?)

Let's say we are talking about a guy named Adrien. The first sentence is equivalent to:

Vous pouvez prendre Adrien en photo pour moi?

While the second is:

Vous pouvez dire à Adrien de s'avancer?

You can notice how in French an indirect object implies a preposition of some kind (here it's "à"). In the first sentence Adrien is indeed a direct object since he is the thing that is taken into picture.

Anne Aunyme
  • 6,349
  • 9
  • 28