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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Replacing “le musée” with a pronom in the sentence: ” nous allons visiter le musée”

Nous allons le visiter is correct. Le musée is a direct object, it is a masculine noun, therefore le is the right pronoun to replace it.

Y would be ok if it were to replace a place complement, which is not the case in the sentence.

Compare with this one:

Nous allons visiter l’exposition Picasso au musée.

Then “au musée” is a place complement and can be replaced by “y”:

Nous allons y visiter l’exposition Picasso.

Y may retain its original meaning as an adverb, with the sense of there but its position is always of an object pronoun.

Sachant que vous y seriez. Knowing that you would be there.

Paul y a été envoyé. Paul was sent there.

As a pronoun, y represents a thing or things in the Dative or governed by the prepositions à, en, dans. Hence:

On entendait les ordres, mais on n’y obéissait (i.e. les ordres) plus. (obéir à qqch)

La maison n’était pas loin. Elle y a couru.

Je n’ai pas confiance en ces choses. Je n’y ai aucune confiance.

Il pensait à sa thèse. Il y pensait sans cesse.

Il est impossible de pénétrer dans le château. Il est impossible d’y
pénétrer.

Y may be used impersonally, referring to a clause or idea.

S’il gardait le silence, c’est qu’il y était obligé. (Musset)

EDIT Initially, I haven’t answered directly your question. So I add this as an “appendix”.

Thus in your case:

“Nous allons visiter le musée” => Nous allons le visiter.

Le replaces here le musée.

On the contrary,

Nous sommes au musée (à+le) => Nous y sommes (meaning we are there).

For y to replace a noun, the noun must come with a preposition (au musée here).

Similarly,

Nous irons au musée. => Nous y irons.

References:

  1. H. Ferrar: A French Reference Grammar, p. 202.

  2. M. Offold: A Student Grammar of French, p. 184.

EDIT 2 The expression Je n’y confiance (où y remplace en) is not encountered anymore in French. See the discussion here y et avoir confiance en

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?