French · Rung 15 of 26

Object pronouns

Object pronouns come before the verb, not after it as in English: “I see him” is je le vois. Direct: me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les. Indirect: me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur, recognised because the verb takes à: je téléphone à Marie gives je lui téléphone. When there are two, the order is fixed and must be memorised: me/te/nous/vous come before le/la/les, and those before lui/leur. Je le lui donne. In the affirmative imperative, and only there, they move behind with a hyphen: donne-le-moi. In the negative they return to their place: ne me le donne pas.

Where this sits

Comes after: Negation: ne… pas
Opens up: Reflexive verbs, The pronouns y and en, Relatives: qui, que, dont, où

Exercises from this rung

Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest

Je téléphone à Paul → Je ___ téléphone.
- lui
- à lui
- le
- il
Why téléphoner takes à, so the object is indirect and the pronoun is lui, the same for masculine and feminine. The test is always the verb's preposition, not the gender.
easier
J'écris à mes parents → Je ___ écris.
- leurs
- les
- eux
- leur
Why leur is the plural indirect pronoun and never takes an s. leurs with an s exists, but it is the possessive: leurs livres. Confusing them is one of the commonest writing errors.
in between
Donne-___ le livre !
- moi
- m'
- me
- je
Why In the affirmative imperative, and only there, pronouns move behind with a hyphen and me becomes moi: donne-moi, dis-moi. In the negative everything returns: ne me donne pas le livre.
harder