Language/French/Grammar/Restrictions-on-possible-combinations
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Restrictions on possible combinations
Table: The order of unstressed object pronouns
First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
---|---|---|---|---|
me | le | lui | en | |
te | la | leur | y | |
se | les | |||
nous | ||||
vous |
Although The table above describes in general the possible sequences of unstressed object pronouns, there are some restrictions on possible combinations. No pronoun from the first column (me, te, se, nous, vous) can normally appear in combination with a pronoun from the third column (lui, leur):
Whilst
- Je vous présenterai Eve-Marie
I will introduce Eve-Marie to you
can, with two pronouns, become
- Je vous la présenterai
I will introduce her to you
the sentence
- Je vous présenterai à Eve-Marie
I will introduce you to Eve-Marie
cannot become
- Je vous lui présenterai
I will introduce you to her
Instead, you would use
- Je vous présenterai à elle
Whilst
- Je vous recommande Jean-Paul
I recommend Jean-Paul to you
can, with two pronouns, become
- Je vous le recommande
I recommend him to you
the sentence
- Je vous recommande à Jean-Paul
I recommend you to Jean-Paul
cannot become
- Je vous lui recommande
I will recommend you to him
Instead, you would use
- Je vous recommande à lui
Nor can any pronouns from within the same column appear together:
- Richard s'est joint à notre petit groupe
Richard joined our little group
cannot become:
- Il se nous est joint
NOR
- Il nous s'est joint
BUT ONLY:
- Richard s'est joint à nous
Richard joined us
Related Lessons
- Verbs which are directly transitive in French
- Future Tense
- Gender of countries, towns, islands, rivers, regions and states
- Adjectives modified by adverbs and prepositional phrases
- Plural of words in Al
- Verbs whose stems end in c— or g—
- The irregular verb être
- Time adverbs
- Measurements and comparisons Numbers with length, height, depth etc
- Agreement of past participle if direct object is placed before
- Indefinite article
- Pronouns
- Nouns
- Wrong use of neutral le in phrases where 'it' occurs in English
- Adverbs