French: a French tendency that might confuse an Anglophone learning French

Self-tutoring about French: the tutor mentions something he thinks he’s noticed.

The following is by my understanding.

When it comes to French, I’m no expert. However, I continue to study it, for whatever reason. I listen to it on YouTube, and I also read articles written in French.

One tendency I find in French that has confused me is the idea of putting the object pronoun before the verb, but then its antecedent afterwards:

Elle la regarde la peinture du bateau.

In the above sentence, “la” before “regarde” means “it”, and refers to the painting of the boat – “la peinture du bateau.” Therefore, the sentence actually says, in English,

She looks at it the painting of the boat.

English doesn’t have the same potential of mentioning the object earlier as a pronoun, then later as itself, because in English, the object pronoun comes after the verb. In contrast, the object pronoun comes before the verb in French.

The above construction in French has confused me as a reader at times.

Source:

Dubois, M-M, Keen, D.J., Shuey, B. Corbeil, J-C, Crocker, L.G. (1983). Larousse’s French-English Dictionary. Pocket Books New York.