Language/French/Grammar/Position-of-subject-pronouns

French Grammar - Position of subject pronouns

In declarative sentences, subject pronouns normally appear immediately before the verb which carries the tense:

• Nous voulons voir le directeur

We want to see the manager

• Tu comprends vite

You catch on quick

• Elle a servi le vin chambré

She served the wine at room temperature

They can only be separated from this verb by the ne of negation, and by other pre-verbal pronouns:

• Elle ne prend pas de café

She's not having any coffee

• Tu Tas mangé

You ate it

• Vous ne le ferez pas

You won't do it

Unlike in English, subject pronouns cannot normally be separated from the verb by adverbials or parenthetical expressions:

• NOT Je souvent dîne avec Laura

I often dine with Laura

• NOT I1, paraît-il, ne prend pas de café

He, it seems, isn't having coffee

versus the grammatical Je dîne souvent avec Laura, Il ne prend pas de café, paraît-il.

In direct questions involving inversion, subject pronouns appear immediately after the verb which carries the tense:

• Sait-il nager? Can he swim?
• Est-elle arrivée? Has she arrived?
• Ont-ils mangé? Have they eaten?

When subject pronouns follow the verb in this way nothing else can intervene:

• Ne le croyez-vous pas? Don't you believe it?
• Ne le lui avez-vous pas donné? Didn't you give it to him?
• Dînent-ils souvent ensemble? Do they often dine together?

Related Lessons

• Pronominal verbs and body parts
• Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with fractions
• Comparative forms of adjectives
• Use of en
• Measurements and comparisons in French — Numeral nouns and approximations
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Page numbers, bus numbers
• The partitive article "du", "de l'", "de la" and "des"
• Use of stressed pronouns for emphasis
• Dates
• Adjectives which regularly occur before and after the noun, but with a change of meaning
• Adjective—adjective compounds
• Easy way of generating the simple past
• Use of on
• Adjectives agreeing with just one noun
• Déterminants