Here’s something that I got wrong on an assessment test on the Lawless French web site. It turns out that if a pro-form (a cover term for pronouns, pro-verbs, etc.) is replacing an infinitive or a relative clause, you are probably going to replace it with le or l’. The way that Laura Lawless puts it is that you’re using the pro-form to stand in for a “previously mentioned complete idea.” If I understood Laura’s lesson correctly, replacement of an infinitive with a pro-form works like this:
- Ils veulent frapper le quartier général? Do they want to strike the headquarters? Oui, je le pense. Yes, I think so.
Replacement of a relative clause works like this:
- Tu veux que Daech soit puni? Do you want Islamic State to be punished? Oui, je le souhaite bien. Yes, I really want it.
So, let’s memorize this:
- Infinitives can be replaced with a pro-form.
- Relative clauses can be replaced with a pro-form.
- The pro-form should be le/l’.
Who knew? I sure didn’t. See the Lawless French web site for more.
Zipf's Law 
To me, the le/l’ seem so logical 🙂 that I’m curious to know what you got wrong? (I’m serious, this is to understand possible student errors from their own logic – can you help?)
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I was thinking that since you penser À qqch, it must be j’y pense. (I’m still not sure why it isn’t!)
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It’s maybe because “y” can only substitute a noun (or noun & adjective) and not a whole clause – I think?
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Bonjour – thanks for linking to my site. 🙂
I wouldn’t say that le is replacing the infinitive in your first example – it’s replacing an implied relative clause, just like your second example.
Ils veulent frapper le quartier général? Oui, je le pense. –> Oui, je pense qu’il veulent frapper…
Tu veux que Daech soit puni? Oui, je le souhaite bien. –> Oui, je souhaite bien que Daech soit puni.
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Hmmmm…I’m trying to find your lesson about this, but can’t seem to get to it on the web site. I had a link to it off of my CEFR results, but it doesn’t seem to be working now (I took the quiz a couple days ago)…
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