Je l'ai fait peindre la clôture.

Sentence Discussions French
#1
English Translation

I got him to paint the fence.

The English translation seems wrong and differs from the explanation.

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#2

I took the trouble to look up the sentence, which is in the Fast Track Level 3. The explanation says:

So, the sentence “Je l’ai fait peindre la clôture.” translates to “I had the fence painted.”

In my understanding, “je l’ai fait peindre la clôture” means “I had him/her paint the fence”; “I had the fence painted” would be “j’ai fait peindre la clôture”.

Here is where ChatGPT goes wrong, IMO:

  • Direct Object Pronoun: “l’” is a direct object pronoun, standing for “la clôture” (the fence) later in the sentence.

In my experience, French doesn’t normally use redundant object pronouns like that.

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#3

Hello @MJMaranda / @morbrorper

That’s right.

I think that is indeed what whoever came up with this translation meant to say. That is also what immediately came to mind when I read it, and I suspect you would also hear it a fair bit in spoken French. Still, something felt slightly off to me.

You are also right about ChatGPT: What it says is wrong in this specific case, but to be fair, “l’” is in fact typically used as a direct object pronoun (together with le/la/les).

I had the fence painted. = J’ai fait peindre la clôture.
I had it painted. = Je l’ ai fait peindre. → “l’” stands for “la clôture” and is indeed direct object pronoun.

I had Bob paint the fence. = J’ai fait peindre la clôture à Bob.
(We could also use “par Bob”: J’ai fait peindre la clôture “par Bob” = I had the fence painted by Bob.)
I had him paint the fence = Je lui ai fait peindre la clôture.

That’s the main point: “lui” stands for Bob, it is an indirect object pronoun.

If we use only pronouns:

Je la lui ai fait peindre. = I had him/her paint it.

(if you try to use the “l’” in the given translation, well… see for yourself :slight_smile: )

tldr / correct translation:
“I had him/her paint the fence.” → Je lui ai fait peindre la clôture.

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#4

Many thanks, @yottapolyglot, for your thorough analysis! I made the mistake of assuming that the sentence was correct from the beginning. A sentence search for “I made him” or “I got him” would have set me on the right track here; the “legacy” FFT has quite a few examples using the indirect object pronoun. As for the “new” Fast Track, who knows?

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#5

You’re very welcome @morbrorper.
This translation is indeed incorrect, but it’s not one of those “it hurts my ears” mistakes.
I really think it may be quite common, at least in spoken French, and things can get kind of confusing sometimes.

Case in point…

Reading this just made me think of a couple more examples:

“I made him work.”
“I made him work on his serve.” (say you’re a tennis coach)

If you get confused trying to translate these, know that it’s not just you…

I don’t want to make things more complicated than they need to be, but I’m happy to answer questions if you have any.

I can’t really comment on the new FT. When it comes to French, I mostly answer questions as they come up :slight_smile:

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#6
English Translation

I got him to paint the fence.

Thanks for all this discussion. I think my understanding of the new FT is that the english sentences are the original 10k, and then they took those phrases and had them translated into different target languages.

So, I’m guessing the original intent was to say “I got him to paint the fence.” which per @yottapolyglot is “Je lui ai fait peindre la clôture.”.

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