UNDERSTANDING FRENCH PRONOUNS - In English, there are not so many pronouns.
The choice between “she” or “her” or “hers”
What Is A Pronoun ?
A pronoun is a small word which replaces a noun.
For example, if I am talking about my friend Tina, I
can say: “Tina picks flowers. Tina likes flowers. Tina is
happy”.
Or, I could replace “Tina” and use a pronoun, in this
case “she”.
Why “she” and not “her”? or “hers”? Because in this
sentence, “Tina” is the grammatical subject. So I need
to pick a subject pronoun.
1 – How To Pick The Right French Pronoun
A- Understanding The Value Of The Word The
Pronoun Will Replace
First, you have to figure out the grammatical value of
the word you want to replace.
Tina donne des fleurs.
- Qui donne ? Tina donne.
- Qui + verb is the grammatical question you
ask to figure out the subject.
 Since “Tina” answers “qui + verb”, Tina is
the subject.
 Therefore, I will choose a subject pronoun
to replace Tina.
- The list of French subject pronoun is:
Je Nous
Tu Vous
Il, Elle, On Ils, Elles
 Je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, ells
 Tina is feminine, singular, a third person
(she), so I’ll pick “elle” to replace “Tina”.
(If you don’t understand “feminine &
singular”, read my article about French
number and gender before you continue
reading this article)
- Elle donne des fleurs.
B – The Key To Understanding French Pronouns
This is often the biggest problem English speakers face
when dealing with pronouns. They don’t know how to
figure out the grammatical value of the noun they
want to replace.
comes naturally to your ear.
- Actually understanding the logic behind why
we use this or that pronoun will be a
tremendous help to understanding French
pronouns. This “logic” is called grammar.
Now, in French, you have many kinds of pronouns.
Today, let’s look at French stress pronouns and
French object pronouns, which are the ones that
confuse learners of French the most.
2- French Stress Pronouns
- Stress pronouns (also called “disjunctive” and
“emphatic” pronouns) are used:
1. after “c’est”,
2. alone (as in pointing to someone to say
“him”, or raising your hand to get picked),
3. and before and after
prepositions/conjunctions.
- Examples:
 c’est moi.
 Moi, moi !! (shouting it out to get picked).
 Avec toi… Lui et moi.
- The list of French stress pronouns is:
Moi Nous
Toi Vous
Lui, Elle, Soi Eux, Elles
 Note that in stress pronouns, LUI is used
only for MASCULINE singular,
 Also carefully learn the plural masculine
EUX – pronounced like the “e” in “je”.
 The stress pronoun for “on” is “soi” but
it’s not very used in French.
 On le fait soi-même.
One does it oneself (we do it
ourselves, everybody does it for
everybody…)
3 – Direct And Indirect French Object Pronouns
A – The Key To Figuring Out French Direct And
Indirect Object Pronouns
The key to figuring out what pronoun you should use
to replace a French word is understanding the
grammatical value of that word.
- In order to do that, you will ask a very specific
grammatical question.
 - To find out the COD (complement d’objet Te Vous
direct) and the COI (complement d’objet Lui Leur
indirect) it is essential that you ask your
grammatical questions IN FRENCH.  NOTE: me and te become m’ or t’ + vowel
or h
The problem with direct and indirect objects is that  So, for a COI, lui means him AND her
English may take a COI where French takes a COD… (unlike stress pronouns where lui means
him, elle means her).
- So if you ask your grammatical question in  Note that for both object groups, me, te,
English, you may get the wrong answer: for nous, vous are the same
example ‘to call someone’ takes a direct object  So the pronoun only change between le,
in English. “Téléphoner à quelqu’un” takes an la, l’, les, lui, leur
indirect object in French.
So for my example, “à Paul” is replaced by “lui”
Your grammar questions are: = Tina lui donne les fleurs.
1. subject + verb + qui/quoi ? = COD - Object pronouns usually go right before the
2. subject + verb + à qui = COI CONJUGATED verb (after the”ne” in the
negative),
Now let’s take an example, it will make much more
sense this way. D – Using Several Object Pronouns In The Same
Sentence
- Tina donne les fleurs à Paul
You can use several object pronouns in the same
 Start by finding out the direct object by sentence.
asking your direct object question in
French. - Tina donne les fleurs à Paul
Tina les lui donne.
Subject + verb + qui/quoi ?
Tina donne quoi ? Except for the imperative mood, the order will be the
Answer: Tina donne les fleurs following :
Les fleurs = COD
Subject
 Now let’s look for the indirect object. + (ne)
+ me / te / se / nous / vous
 Subject + verb + à qui ? + le / la / l’ / les
Tina donne à qui ? + lui / leur
Answer: à Paul + verb
À Paul = COI + (pas).

Once you’ve found the word you want to replace, you Obviously, this is just a shortcut: you cannot learn
choose the right pronoun in the list of pronouns. your pronoun order with a list like that. You need to
practice a lot so this order becomes second nature to
B – French Direct Object Pronouns you.

- The list of French COD pronouns is: Glidings are super strong over these pronouns, in
particular the ones ending in “e”, so stay focused on
Me Nous the context since lots of time, one pronoun will
Te Vous disappear in spoken French when people don’t
Le, La Les enunciate…

 Note me, te, le/la become m’, t’, l’ + vowel

or h
So for my example, “les fleurs” is replaced by “les”
= Tina les donne à Paul.

4 – What Is Really Confusing About French

Pronouns
C – French Indirect Object Pronouns
Now, you see that pronouns are confusing because the
- The list of French COI pronouns is: same words have different values:

Me Nous
 1. NOUS and VOUS are the form for almost all
pronouns: subject, stress, object, reflexive, etc…
2. LUI can mean “for/with/by… – HIM –
masculine singular ONLY when it is a stress
pronoun, AND “him or her” when it is an
indirect object pronoun.
3. LEUR means them, but it’s also the form of
the possessive adjective “their”; voici leur
maison.
4. LE, LA, L’, LES, are direct object pronouns
AND definite articles meaning “the”.
5 – French Verbs + Direct Or Indirect Object
2. Je regarde ma fille. Je regarde qui ? Ma fille. Je
la regarde.
The COI is most of the time an animate being (a person
or an animal).
It can be an inanimate thing like a company
(inanimate… but still made of people), but it’s very
unlikely that it would be a chair for example… Of
course one can always imagine crazy scenarios like in
the movie Cast-Away when Tom Hanks talks to his
volleyball…
Je parle à mon ami. Je parle à qui ? à mon ami. Je lui
parle.

To understand the difference between direct and B – French Pronouns – Taking Things Further
indirect object, it’s interesting to take a closer look at
your French verb. Of course, these are shortcuts, I’m sure you’ll find
examples where this doesn’t’ work.
- A LOT OF FRENCH VERBS take direct object
pronouns. Direct, indirect, object, and stress pronouns have kind
of the same value. They have to do with “who” the
- ONLY A FEW FRENCH VERBS  take indirect subject does an action to.
object pronouns:
And in French, the preposition is the key.
1. acheter à,
2. emprunter à, Subject + verb + someone/something = direct object
3. prêter à,
4. offrir à, - Je regarde Pierre = je le regarde
5. rendre à, 
6. donner à,  Subject + verb + à someone = most of the time indirect
7. vendre à, object (some exceptions when some verbs with an “à”
8. parler à, construction require a stress pronouns)
9. demander à,
10. dire à, - Je donne (la fleur) à Pierre = Je lui donne (la
11. téléphoner à,  fleur).
12. écrire à,
13. sourire à, Subject + verb + à something = Y
14. répondre à,
15. souhaiter à,
Elle pense à son école = elle y pense
16. envoyer à,
17. laisser à,
- Subject + verb + chez, pour, avec, de . . .
18. présenter à,
someone = stress pronoun 
19. servir à,
20. raconter à…the list goes on but these
Je vais chez mes parents = Je vais chez eux.
are the most common ones.
Subject + verb + de something = en 
You may find this list of French verbs followed by the
preposition à  useful.
- Il parle de son école = il en parle
So the best thing to do is to drill with these French
verbs and “lui & leur”… je lui téléphone, nous leur
vendons….

A – Animate Versus Inanimate

Note that the COD may be a thing or a person, an

animal… So animate or inanimate.

1. Je regarde la télé. Je regarde quoi ? La télé. Je

la regarde.