@candle I dunno because you could say it's "J'ai vu lui" but "J'ai vu elle" you'd still say "Je l'ai vue" lol

@Louvelune @candle oh yes you're right

@Louvelune @Hiraelle oh, so that is what i thought when read it, but since when is "le" referring to him/her ??

@Hiraelle @Louvelune i read it like... "i the have seen recently"

@candle @Louvelune can also be it

"Je l'ai vu" could be "I saw this thing, not necessarily a person

@Hiraelle @Louvelune ohhh like il

@candle @Louvelune it's because we don't have something like the pronoun "it" in french

@Louvelune @candle that's why everything has genders, even the chair you're on

@candle @Hiraelle I'm pulling that out of my ass, but I think that it's "le/la" when it's a transitive verb, "lui" when it's intransitive.

So, "I see him" => "je le vois"
"I give to him" => "je lui donne"

That's the only occasion where le/la can be pronoun instead of a determinant, though. And since it will always be right before the verb of the sentence, you can't mistake it for the usual determinant - which is probably why it's used to mark the difference transitive/intransitive, by the way. :<

@candle @Hiraelle NB: I chose "give" as an example to SUBTLY point out that transitivity isn't translated linearly. Some verbs will be one in English, the other in French... ^^°

You CAN'T say "I gave him the letter" in French, it's necessarily "to give [smth] TO [smone]"