Language/French/Grammar/Benefactive-me,-te,-se,-nous,-vous

Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous

me, te, se, nous, vous may also be used to indicate that the subject 'benefits' from some action. This use, known as the 'benefactive', can often be paraphrased in English by 'for him-, her-, it-, oneself/themselves, etc.':

• Josée s'est acheté un nouvel ordinateur

Josée bought herself a neiv computer

• Jacques s'est commandé une bière

Jacques ordered himself a beer

• J'ai hâte de rentrer et de me verser un Martini

I can't wait to get home and pour myself a Martini

• Etienne et Madeleine se sont offert un baptême de l'air

Etienne and Madeleine treated themselves to a first flight

After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Plural forms of adjectives — Adjectives which end in eau & Object pronouns Correctly identifying the direct and indirect objects in English and French.

Other Lessons

• Adjectives preceded by de
• Direct object and indirect object pronouns differences between English and French
• Demonstrative determiners
• Easy way of generating the imperative mood
• Omission of the article with nouns following the verbs être, demeurer, devenir, élire, nommer, rester
• Time adverbs
• Adjectives modified by adverbs and prepositional phrases
• Gender of makes of vehicle and machines
• me, te, se, nous, vous as part of certain verbs but with no specific meaning
• Dates
• Use of y in constructions where à does not introduce an indirect object
• Compound adjectives involving demi—, nu— and mi—
• Negations
• Choosing between il est and c'est
• Emphasizing the reciprocal use of se by adding l'un l'autre