Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à elles. - why is this wrong?

chris w.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à elles. - why is this wrong?

The lesson says 'Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à elles.' is wrong, yet it follows the same structure as ' il rappelle son ex a Maria'. Is this something to do with 'elles'? is it just grammatically inelegant?

Asked 3 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Chris, 

In the sentence you suggest 

à elles would be  replaced by 'leur' which then precedes rappelle.

You could say 

Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à Marie = She reminds Marie of Lady Gaga

Elle rappelle Lady Gaga aux enfants = She reminds the children of L G

Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à mon frère She reminds my broher of L G

But the construction you suggest ending with a pronoun might be used by a very young French child but isn't correct French.

Hope this helps!

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Just to mention it explicitly:

Elle leur rappelle Lady Gaga. -- She reminds them of Lady Gaga.

Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à elles. - why is this wrong?

The lesson says 'Elle rappelle Lady Gaga à elles.' is wrong, yet it follows the same structure as ' il rappelle son ex a Maria'. Is this something to do with 'elles'? is it just grammatically inelegant?

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