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A person with 'à', an action with 'de'

When you tell, ask, or advise someone to do something, English links the words directly. You just say that you asked someone to help. French uses a specific grammatical formula for these situations. For many common verbs of communication, you must introduce the person with the preposition à and the action with the preposition de.

This structure appears with everyday words like demander, dire, and permettre. Once you learn the pattern, you will stop getting tangled up when translating English instructions into French.

Word list
direA1 to say dire à qqn de faire écrireA1 to write écrire à qqn de faire téléphonerA1 to call téléphoner à qqn de faire crierA2 to shout crier à qqn de faire permettreA2 to let permettre à qqn de faire promettreA2 to promise promettre à qqn de faire répéterA2 to repeat répéter à qqn de faire conseillerB1 to advise conseiller à qqn de faire défendreB1 to forbid défendre à qqn de faire demanderB1 to ask for demander à qqn de faire hurlerB1 to scream hurler à qqn de faire interdireB1 to forbid interdire à qqn de faire proposerB1 to suggest proposer à qqn de faire rappelerB1 to remind rappeler à qqn de faire recommanderB1 to recommend recommander à qqn de faire suggérerB1 to suggest suggérer à qqn de faire chuchoterB2 to whisper chuchoter à qqn de faire commanderB2 to command commander à qqn de faire ordonnerB2 to command ordonner à qqn de faire soufflerB2 to whisper souffler à qqn de faire murmurerC1 to mumble murmurer à qqn de faire imposerC2 to prescribe imposer à qqn de faire prescrireC2 to prescribe prescrire à qqn de faire
The basic formula

When you want to express asking or telling someone to perform an action, the order is straightforward. You place à right before the person receiving the message, and de right before the infinitive verb describing the action.

J'ai demandé à Marie de m'aider.
(I asked Marie to help me.)
Le médecin a conseillé à mon père de se reposer.
(The doctor advised my father to rest.)

Remember that if the person is a plural noun, the preposition à will combine with the plural article les to become aux.

Le directeur a interdit aux élèves de tricher.
(The principal forbade the students to cheat.)
Where to put pronouns

The preposition à does not always sit right next to the main verb. If you replace the person with a pronoun like him, her, or them, you must use indirect object pronouns: lui or leur. These pronouns already contain the meaning of à, and they move to the front of the verb.

Je lui ai dit de patienter.
(I told him to wait.)
Nous leur avons permis de partir tôt.
(We allowed them to leave early.)
Tu m'as rappelé de prendre mes clés.
(You reminded me to take my keys.)
Who is doing the action?

With verbs like demander, ordonner, or suggérer, the person receiving the instruction is the one who will perform the action. However, a few verbs share this exact grammar pattern even though the action is performed by the speaker.

The most common example is promettre. The structure looks exactly the same, but the person who promises is the one who will act.

Je lui ai promis de revenir.
(I promised her that I would return.)
Elle a proposé à Marc de participer.
(She suggested to Marc that she participate / that they participate.)
Summary

When using verbs of ordering, asking, or advising, link the pieces together with prepositions: use à before the person (or an indirect pronoun like lui) and de before the infinitive action.