Language/French/Grammar/Object-pronouns

Object Pronouns in French Grammar

Object pronouns are an essential part of French grammar and are used to replace the object of a sentence. In this lesson, we will explore the different types of object pronouns in French and how they are used in sentences.

Direct Object Pronouns

Direct object pronouns are used to replace the direct object of a sentence. The direct object is the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. In French, the direct object pronouns are "le" for masculine singular nouns, "la" for feminine singular nouns, "les" for plural nouns of either gender. For example:

• Je vois le chat. Je le vois. (I see the cat. I see it.)
• Elle mange la pomme. Elle la mange. (She eats the apple. She eats it.)
• Nous avons acheté les livres. Nous les avons achetés. (We bought the books. We bought them.)

Indirect Object Pronouns

Indirect object pronouns are used to replace the indirect object of a sentence. The indirect object is the person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb. In French, the indirect object pronouns are "lui" for both masculine and feminine singular nouns, and "leur" for plural nouns of either gender. For example:

• Il donne le cadeau à sa mère. Il lui donne le cadeau. (He gives the gift to his mother. He gives her the gift.)
• Elle parle à son frère. Elle lui parle. (She speaks to her brother. She speaks to him.)
• Nous écrivons à nos amis. Nous leur écrivons. (We write to our friends. We write to them.)

Double Object Pronouns

In French, it is common to use both direct and indirect object pronouns in the same sentence. When this happens, the indirect object pronoun comes before the direct object pronoun. For example:

• Il donne le livre à sa soeur. Il le lui donne. (He gives the book to his sister. He gives it to her.)
• Elle achète des fleurs pour sa mère. Elle les lui achète. (She buys flowers for her mother. She buys them for her.)

Conclusion

Understanding the different types of object pronouns in French - direct, indirect, and double - is an important part of mastering French grammar. By learning how to use object pronouns to replace the direct and indirect objects of a sentence, you can improve your French language skills and communicate more effectively with native speakers.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Easy way of generating the present subjunctive
• Summary table of articles
• Marked use of tu
• Nouns that are only masculine or only feminine But may refer to both men and women
• Prepositions
• Use of jamais
• Relative pronouns
• Omission of the article in compound nouns linked by à
• Verb agreement with fractions
• Formation of the passive in French