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Il faut les rendre actifs - we have to make them active
Nous devons leur donner le choix - We have to give them the choice
Please can someone explain why the second sentence takes an indirect object pronoun?
Both the sentences' structure seem exactly the same yet have different pronouns...
In many languages, including French and English, verbs generally take zero to three nouns as "arguments".
Traditionally, the first argument is called the "subject", the second is the "direct object", and the third is the "indirect object".
In English, when a verb takes three arguments, there are two standard ways to put the pieces together:
But this doesn't change the roles of the nouns: if "I'm sending you a letter", or "I'm sending a letter to you", I am the subject, a letter is the direct object, and you are the indirect object.
That's why you use leur in your second sentence: it's the third argument to the verb. The first is nous (subject), the second is le choix (direct object), the third is leur (indirect object). Why do they go in this order? Historical reasons, really: that's just the way French and English evolved, and other languages can and do do it differently.
In the first sentence, on the other hand, the verb only takes two nouns as arguments. The first isn't stated (subject), the second is les (direct object). There's a third argument, but it isn't a noun, and only nouns fill in these three slots; other types of arguments, even if they're mandatory, don't fit into this same structure. (See also prepositional phrase arguments. These can also be mandatory: you can't just say *"I put the book", you have to put the book on something, or in something, or under something, etc. But they don't fit into the subject-direct object-indirect object system.)
If you think about it, you can see the direct object (accusative case in some languages) and the indirect object (dative case in some languages) in English in your examples:
Who do I make active?
To make someone active.
Who do I give the choice to?
To give the choice to someone.
Now English has a specificity that makes you can transform this into:
To give someone the choice.
I'm not good enough in English to talk about this, but it seems it only works when there is direct complement too (here the choice), so I think your question is more "why can we use them in English instead of to them in some cases?".
When there is only one complement, which is direct:
J'aime mes parents => Je les aime
I love my parents => I love them
And when it's indirect:
Je parle à mes parents => Je leur parle
I talk to my parents => I talk to them
And with two complements, a direct one and an indirect one:
Je donne des pommes à mes parents
I give apples to my parents OR I give my parents apples
Je leur donne des pommes
I give apples to them OR I give them apples
Je les leur donne
I give them to them
Can you say "I give them them", with the first them being the parents?
