Personal pronouns - le as neutral pronoun
1 Referring back to sentence elements
When the object pronoun le is used to refer to parts of a sentence other than a noun , it is said to be a neutral pronoun. In this case it is often not translated by the equivalent neutral pronoun in English, it. The neutral pronoun le can refer to:
- an adjective
Autrefois Pierre était très timide, mais il ne l'est plus
Pierre used to be very shy, but he isn't any longer
Cet étudiant est plus doué que je ne l'ai d'abord cru
This student is more gifted than I first thought
- a past participle
Elle vient d'être sélectionnée pour un prix: elle ne l'a jamais été auparavant
She has just been nominated for a prize: she never has been before
- a clause
Je peux garder les enfants. Dites-moi si vous le voulez avant le week-end
I can look after the children. Tell me if you want me to before the week-end
2 Anticipating facts, ideas etc.
2.1 Use in French but not English
The neutral pronoun le is often used to anticipate a fact, idea, statement etc. when in English the equivalent word it is not normally used:
Comme vous le savez déjà, ...
As you already know,...
Comme je vous l'ai déjà dit, ...
As I have already told you,...
2.2 Use in English but not French
By contrast, in the same contruction sometimes le is not used where English does in fact use it:
Je trouve difficile de m'habituer à la vie à Paris
I'm finding it hard to get used to living in Paris
Verb constructions acting like this include trouver, juger and estimer + adjective + que.