FR: je pars en vacances / j'assite à une réunion - object & preposition

[Tom589]

Hello

Please consider a and b below:

a. Je pars en vacances
b. J'assite à une réunion

Can anyone help me understand why 'en vacances' is an adverbial expression but 'une réunion' is a direct object of 'assister à'? Why could it not be that 'en vacances' is the object of partir?

I hope that makes sense - any help would be much appreciated!

Tom

 

[Maître Capello]

The verb partir is intransitive – it doesn't take any objects. This, however, doesn't mean it's impossible to use partir with a complement – you may actually use various adverbial phrases like en vacances, demain, à la montagne and/or pour une semaine:

Je pars. ​

Je pars demain. ​

Je pars en vacances pour une semaine. ​

Je pars à la montagne. ​

On the other hand, assister is transitive, i.e., an object is required, and that object must be constructed with preposition à (in the intended sense), i.e., the object is indirect:

J'assiste. ​

J'assiste à une réunion. ​

'une réunion' is a direct object of 'assister à'

Almost. You should rather say that à une réunion is the indirect object of assister.