I need more help with this, please.

Question

I'm having more trouble with this lesson than any other so far. I just can't seem to grasp it the way it's presented here. If anyone has links to helpful videos to supplement it, I would really appreciate it.

Accepted Answer

Hi Melisa, 
If you haven't done so already, please have a look at the Q&A attached to this lesson as this difficult usage of 'rappeler' has caused the same problem to others and this might help you.
I wouldn't worry too much about it as in the context of grammatical difficulties this is a minor issue...
Hope this helps!

Answer

That's a construction with which a lot of people have problems because it is counter to what you'd use in English. It helped me to think of rappeler to mean "to recall to memory".

Il rappelle Anne à Marie. -- "He recalls Anne to the memory of Anne", i.e., He reminds Marie of Anne.

Answer

I agree with Chris, but would take it a bit further.  When learning languages I find it often helps to remember a word-for-word English translation of a difficult phrase. So here where 'rappeler'= to recall (the memory of), "Il  rappelle Anne à Marie" = "He 'recalls (the memory of) ' Anne to Marie."  = " He reminds Marie of Anne. :)