UNDERSTANDING FRENCH PRONOUNS - In English, there are not so many pronouns.

The choice between “she” or “her” or “hers”

What Is A Pronoun ? comes naturally to your ear.

A pronoun is a small word which replaces a noun. - Actually understanding the logic behind why
we use this or that pronoun will be a
For example, if I am talking about my friend Tina, I tremendous help to understanding French
can say: “Tina picks flowers. Tina likes flowers. Tina is pronouns. This “logic” is called grammar.
happy”.
Now, in French, you have many kinds of pronouns.
Or, I could replace “Tina” and use a pronoun, in this Today, let’s look at French stress pronouns and
case “she”. French object pronouns, which are the ones that
confuse learners of French the most.
Why “she” and not “her”? or “hers”? Because in this
sentence, “Tina” is the grammatical subject. So I need 2- French Stress Pronouns
to pick a subject pronoun.
- Stress pronouns (also called “disjunctive” and
1 – How To Pick The Right French Pronoun “emphatic” pronouns) are used:

A- Understanding The Value Of The Word The 1. after “c’est”,

Pronoun Will Replace
2. alone (as in pointing to someone to say
First, you have to figure out the grammatical value of “him”, or raising your hand to get picked),
the word you want to replace.
3. and before and after
Tina donne des fleurs. prepositions/conjunctions.

- Qui donne ? Tina donne. - Examples:

 c’est moi.
- Qui + verb is the grammatical question you  Moi, moi !! (shouting it out to get picked).
ask to figure out the subject.  Avec toi… Lui et moi.

 Since “Tina” answers “qui + verb”, Tina is - The list of French stress pronouns is:
the subject.
Moi Nous
 Therefore, I will choose a subject pronoun Toi Vous
to replace Tina. Lui, Elle, Soi Eux, Elles

- The list of French subject pronoun is:  Note that in stress pronouns, LUI is used
only for MASCULINE singular,
Je Nous
Tu Vous  Also carefully learn the plural masculine
Il, Elle, On Ils, Elles EUX – pronounced like the “e” in “je”.

 The stress pronoun for “on” is “soi” but

 Je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, ells it’s not very used in French.
 Tina is feminine, singular, a third person
 On le fait soi-même.
(she), so I’ll pick “elle” to replace “Tina”.
One does it oneself (we do it
(If you don’t understand “feminine &
ourselves, everybody does it for
singular”, read my article about French
everybody…)
number and gender before you continue
reading this article)
3 – Direct And Indirect French Object Pronouns
- Elle donne des fleurs.
A – The Key To Figuring Out French Direct And
B – The Key To Understanding French Pronouns Indirect Object Pronouns

This is often the biggest problem English speakers face The key to figuring out what pronoun you should use
when dealing with pronouns. They don’t know how to to replace a French word is understanding the
figure out the grammatical value of the noun they grammatical value of that word.
want to replace. - In order to do that, you will ask a very specific
grammatical question.
 - To find out the COD (complement d’objet Te Vous
direct) and the COI (complement d’objet Lui Leur
indirect) it is essential that you ask your
grammatical questions IN FRENCH.  NOTE: me and te become m’ or t’ + vowel
or h
The problem with direct and indirect objects is that  So, for a COI, lui means him AND her
English may take a COI where French takes a COD… (unlike stress pronouns where lui means
him, elle means her).
- So if you ask your grammatical question in  Note that for both object groups, me, te,
English, you may get the wrong answer: for nous, vous are the same
example ‘to call someone’ takes a direct object  So the pronoun only change between le,
in English. “Téléphoner à quelqu’un” takes an la, l’, les, lui, leur
indirect object in French.
So for my example, “à Paul” is replaced by “lui”
Your grammar questions are: = Tina lui donne les fleurs.
1. subject + verb + qui/quoi ? = COD - Object pronouns usually go right before the
2. subject + verb + à qui = COI CONJUGATED verb (after the”ne” in the
negative),
Now let’s take an example, it will make much more
sense this way. D – Using Several Object Pronouns In The Same
Sentence
- Tina donne les fleurs à Paul
You can use several object pronouns in the same
 Start by finding out the direct object by sentence.
asking your direct object question in
French. - Tina donne les fleurs à Paul
Tina les lui donne.
Subject + verb + qui/quoi ?
Tina donne quoi ? Except for the imperative mood, the order will be the
Answer: Tina donne les fleurs following :
Les fleurs = COD
Subject
 Now let’s look for the indirect object. + (ne)
+ me / te / se / nous / vous
 Subject + verb + à qui ? + le / la / l’ / les
Tina donne à qui ? + lui / leur
Answer: à Paul + verb
À Paul = COI + (pas).

Once you’ve found the word you want to replace, you Obviously, this is just a shortcut: you cannot learn
choose the right pronoun in the list of pronouns. your pronoun order with a list like that. You need to
practice a lot so this order becomes second nature to
B – French Direct Object Pronouns you.

- The list of French COD pronouns is: Glidings are super strong over these pronouns, in
particular the ones ending in “e”, so stay focused on
Me Nous the context since lots of time, one pronoun will
Te Vous disappear in spoken French when people don’t
Le, La Les enunciate…

 Note me, te, le/la become m’, t’, l’ + vowel

or h
So for my example, “les fleurs” is replaced by “les”
= Tina les donne à Paul.

4 – What Is Really Confusing About French

Pronouns
C – French Indirect Object Pronouns
Now, you see that pronouns are confusing because the
- The list of French COI pronouns is: same words have different values:

Me Nous
 1. NOUS and VOUS are the form for almost all
pronouns: subject, stress, object, reflexive, etc… 2. Je regarde ma fille. Je regarde qui ? Ma fille. Je
la regarde.
2. LUI can mean “for/with/by… – HIM –
masculine singular ONLY when it is a stress The COI is most of the time an animate being (a person
pronoun, AND “him or her” when it is an or an animal).
indirect object pronoun.
It can be an inanimate thing like a company
3. LEUR means them, but it’s also the form of (inanimate… but still made of people), but it’s very
the possessive adjective “their”; voici leur unlikely that it would be a chair for example… Of
maison. course one can always imagine crazy scenarios like in
the movie Cast-Away when Tom Hanks talks to his
4. LE, LA, L’, LES, are direct object pronouns volleyball…
AND definite articles meaning “the”.
Je parle à mon ami. Je parle à qui ? à mon ami. Je lui
5 – French Verbs + Direct Or Indirect Object parle.

To understand the difference between direct and B – French Pronouns – Taking Things Further
indirect object, it’s interesting to take a closer look at
your French verb. Of course, these are shortcuts, I’m sure you’ll find
examples where this doesn’t’ work.
- A LOT OF FRENCH VERBS take direct object
pronouns. Direct, indirect, object, and stress pronouns have kind
of the same value. They have to do with “who” the
- ONLY A FEW FRENCH VERBS  take indirect subject does an action to.
object pronouns:
And in French, the preposition is the key.
1. acheter à,
2. emprunter à, Subject + verb + someone/something = direct object
3. prêter à,
4. offrir à, - Je regarde Pierre = je le regarde
5. rendre à, 
6. donner à,  Subject + verb + à someone = most of the time indirect
7. vendre à, object (some exceptions when some verbs with an “à”
8. parler à, construction require a stress pronouns)
9. demander à,
10. dire à, - Je donne (la fleur) à Pierre = Je lui donne (la
11. téléphoner à,  fleur).
12. écrire à,
13. sourire à, Subject + verb + à something = Y
14. répondre à,
15. souhaiter à,
Elle pense à son école = elle y pense
16. envoyer à,
17. laisser à,
- Subject + verb + chez, pour, avec, de . . .
18. présenter à,
someone = stress pronoun 
19. servir à,
20. raconter à…the list goes on but these
Je vais chez mes parents = Je vais chez eux.
are the most common ones.
Subject + verb + de something = en 
You may find this list of French verbs followed by the
preposition à  useful.
- Il parle de son école = il en parle
So the best thing to do is to drill with these French
verbs and “lui & leur”… je lui téléphone, nous leur
vendons….

A – Animate Versus Inanimate

Note that the COD may be a thing or a person, an

animal… So animate or inanimate.

1. Je regarde la télé. Je regarde quoi ? La télé. Je

la regarde.