Understanding French Pronouns

Today, I am going to talk about a vast subject: French pronouns. I can’t cover it all in a blog
post, but I will explain the pronouns clearly and point out some difficulties.

First, let’s see how to pick the right French pronoun.

Table of Contents
What is A Pronoun ?
1 – How to Pick the Right French Pronoun
A – Understanding the value of the word the pronoun will replace
B – The key to understanding French pronouns
2 – What is a Subject Pronoun?
B – French Subject Pronouns
C – No “It” Pronoun in French
3 – French Stress Pronouns
4 – Direct and Indirect French Object Pronouns
A – The key to figuring out French direct and indirect object pronouns
B – French direct object pronouns
C – French indirect object pronouns
D – Using several object pronouns in the same sentence
6 – Other Types of French Pronouns
A – The pronoun en
B – The pronoun y
c – Demonstrative pronouns
d – Indefinite pronouns
d – French relative pronouns
5 – What is really Confusing About French Pronouns
6 – Unlock Direct or Indirect Object With French Verbs!
7 – Subtleties of French Object Pronouns
A – Animate versus inanimate
B – French pronouns – taking things further
8 – List of French Pronouns

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, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles (s is silent).

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.

There is no “it” in French. There are emerging French “neutral” pronouns for human beings
being used mostly within the LGBTQ+ community, such as “iel”, but it’s not common
practice yet.

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.

In English, there are not so many pronouns. The choice between “she” or “her” or “hers”
comes naturally to your ear.

It takes about 10 years for a French kid to master all the different French pronouns: they
mostly learn by repetition, although they do also spend years learning the theory in French
class.

Ideally, kids learn pronouns by repetition and correction: their parents and teachers keep
correcting their mistakes, and then the kid develops an understanding of what pronoun s/he
should use in different sentence structures.

So, you may be able to learn the French pronouns by mimicking French sentences featuring
pronouns (with audio of course), like French kids do. But unless you have someone
constantly correcting you, this way not be the best nor the fastest way.
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.

To really understand French pronouns, I suggest you get my intermediate French learning
method, which will clearly explain French pronouns to you, in a logical and gradual way,
with many examples and exercises. The pronouns are then featured within the context of a
low intermediate story.

Now, in French, you have many kinds of pronouns.

Today, let’s look at French subject pronouns, stress pronouns and French object pronouns,
which are the ones that confuse learners of French the most.

This lesson will give you essential pointers, and offer simplified explanations: I cannot
explain all the subtleties of French pronouns in one article when entire books are written on
this subject! I will however focus on what usually confuses English speakers.

2 – What Is A Subject Pronoun?

The subject is the entity that does the action of the verb.

There is an easy way to find the subject of a sentence. First, find the verb. Then ask: “who +
verb” or “what + verb”. The answer to that question will be your subject.

B – French Subject Pronouns

The list of French subject pronouns to replace one single entity is:

  Je (or j’ + vowel or h) = I

 Tu = you singular informal
 Il = it, he
Long “eel” sound
 Elle = it, she
Short clipped “el” sound
 On – this one is more difficult to understand. It used to mean “ one “, but nowadays,
“on” is used in casual French to say “ we “, instead of the now more formal/written
form “ nous” (see below). Here is my article about the pronoun on in French.
 Vous = you, one person, formal

If the pronoun replaces several entities, you’ll choose among the list of plural French subject
pronouns.

 Nous = we
S is silent, but becomes Z when followed by a vowel or an h.
Nowadays, “ nous “ is used in a formal context and in writing mostly. In conversation,
we tend to use “on”.
 Vous = you plural (both formal and informal)
S is silent, but becomes Z + vowel or an h.
   Ils = they, replacing masculine entities; or they, replacing a mix of masculine and
feminine entities –
S is silent, but becomes Z when it’s followed by a vowel or an h.
 Elles = they, replacing feminine entities ONLY –
S is silent, but becomes Z when it’s followed by a vowel or an h.

C – No “It” Pronoun In French

There is no “it” form in French.

Everything: objects, concepts, animals, people are either a “he” or a “she”. This is a difficult
concept for English speakers to grasp at first.

Subject pronouns, their use and pronunciation is explained in depth, with many examples and
audio in my beginner French learning method.

3 – 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.

 c’est moi.
 Moi, moi !! (shouting it out to get picked).
 Avec toi… Lui et moi.

The list of French stress pronouns is moi, toi, LUI, ELLE, soi, nous, vous, EUX, ELLES.

Note that in stress pronouns, LUI is used only for MASCULINE singular, and 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…)
The French “on” is explained here.

Subject and Stress pronouns are thoroughly explained in chapters 1, 2 and 9 of my

downloadable French audiobook À Moi Paris Level 1. I use many examples and then feature
the pronouns in a beginner level bilingual story.

4 – Direct And Indirect French Object Pronouns

A – The Key To Figuring Out French Direct And Indirect Object Pronouns

As I explained in the first paragraph, 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 direct) and the COI (complement d’objet indirect)
it is essential that you ask your grammatical questions IN FRENCH.

The problem with direct and indirect objects is that English may take a COI where French
takes a COD… So if you ask your grammatical question in English, you may get the wrong
answer: for example ‘to call someone’ takes a direct object in English. “Téléphoner à
quelqu’un” takes an indirect object in French.

Your grammar questions are:

1. subject + verb + qui/quoi ? = COD

2. subject + verb + à qui = COI

Now let’s take an example, it will make much more sense this way.

 Tina donne les fleurs à Paul

Start by finding out the direct object by asking your direct object question in French.
Subject + verb + qui/quoi ?
Tina donne quoi ?
Answer: Tina donne les fleurs
Les fleurs = COD

Now let’s look for the indirect object.

Subject + verb + à qui ?
Tina donne à qui ?
Answer: à Paul
À Paul = COI

If you understand this process, then you understand direct and indirect objects in French.

Once you’ve found the word you want to replace, you choose the right pronoun in the list of
pronouns.

B – French Direct Object Pronouns

The list of French COD pronouns is:

 Me, te, le/la, nous, vous, les – 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.

C – French Indirect Object Pronouns

The list of French COI pronouns is:

 Me, te, LUI, nous, vous, LEUR – note me and te become m’ or t’ + vowel or h
So for my example, “à Paul” is replaced by “lui”
= Tina lui donne les fleurs.

So, for a COI, lui means him AND her (unlike stress pronouns where lui means
him, elle means her).

Important:
Note that for both object groups, me, te, nous, vous are the same.

So the pronoun only change between le, la, l’, les, lui, leur.

Object pronouns usually go right before the CONJUGATED verb (after the”ne” in the
negative), and there are lots of glidings in spoken French (use my French audiobooks to get
accustomed to understanding spoken French).

D – Using Several Object Pronouns In The Same Sentence

You can use several object pronouns in the same sentence.

 Tina donne les fleurs à Paul = Tina les lui donne.

Except for the imperative mood, the order will be the following :

Subject
+ (ne)
+ me / te / se / nous / vous
+ le / la / l’ / les
+ lui / leur
+ verb
+ (pas).

Obviously, this is just a shortcut: you cannot learn your pronoun order with a list like that.
You need to practice a lot so this order becomes second nature to you. Glidings are super
strong over these pronouns, in particular the ones ending in “e”, so stay focused on the
context since lots of time, one pronoun will disappear in spoken French when people don’t
enunciate…

Direct and Indirect object pronouns are thoroughly explained + exercises + featured in an
intermediate level story in my French audiobook À Moi Paris Level 3.

6 – Other Types Of French Pronouns

The French pronoun Y and En

The French adverbial pronouns Y and En follow the same kind of logic. For each pronouns
there are 2 main points to understand.

A – The Pronoun En
1 – We use “en” in French to replace a noun modified by a notion of quantity.
Je bois de l’eau = j’en bois.
Je mange du gâteau = j’en mange.
Je voudrais beaucoup de sucre = j’en voudrais beaucoup.
J’achète des pommes = j’en achète (plusieurs)

2 – The French pronoun En Replaces a THING Introduced by a Verb Followed by “de, du, de
la, de l’, des”
Je rêve de mes vacances = j’en rêve
Je parle de mon voyage = j’en parle

B – The Pronoun Y

1 – The French Pronoun Y Replaces a PLACE.

Je vais à Paris = j’y vais
Je vais en France = j’y vais

2 – The French Pronoun Y also Replaces A THING (never a person) introduced by “à, au,
aux, à l’, à la”
Je pense à mon travail = j’y pense
Je réfléchis aux problèmes internationaux – j’y réfléchis

C – Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns (this one, that one, the one[s], these, those in English) refer to a
noun which was previously-mentioned in the sentence.

 celui – masculine singular

 celle – feminine singular
 ceux – masculine plural
 celles – feminine plural

D – Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are unspecific and are used in place of nouns.

autre(s) another one, others

certain(e)s certain ones
chacun(e) each one
on one
plusieurs several
quelque chose something
quelqu’un someone
quelques-uns some, a few
quiconque anyone
soi oneself
tel one, someone
tout everything
tout le monde everyone
un, l’un one

D – French Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are difficult to explain because they depend on the grammatical fonction
of the word they replace. And translating won’t work because we’d often use a relative
pronoun in French when we’d use none in English. Relative pronouns are explained in
my French audiobook method – intermediate level.

Qui Subject who, what

Indirect object (person) which, that, whom
Que Direct object whom, what, which, that
Lequel Indirect object (thing) what, which, that
Dont Object of de of which, from which, that
Indicate possession whose
Où Indicate place or time when, where, which, that
Now that I’ve listed the different kind of pronouns, what I would really like to get into is why
French pronouns are confusing for students.

5 – What Is Really Confusing About French Pronouns

French pronouns are confusing because the same words have different values:

1. NOUS and VOUS are the form for almost all pronouns: subject, stress, object,
reflexive, etc… (so if you have to write a French essay, do it at the nous or vous
form!!)
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. QUE may be translated as what or that or who!
6. QUI may be translated as who or that…

6 – Unlock Direct Or Indirect Object With French Verbs!

To understand the difference between direct and indirect object, it’s interesting to take a
closer look at your French verb.

A LOT OF FRENCH VERBS take direct object pronouns.

ONLY A FEW FRENCH VERBS  take indirect object pronouns:

1. acheter à – to by from
2.  emprunter à – to borrow from
 3. prêter à – to lend to
4. offrir à – to give (as a present) to
5. rendre à – to give back to
6. donner à – to give to 
7. vendre à – to sell to
8. parler à – to speak to, talk to
9. demander à – to ask from
10. dire à – to say to, tell
11. téléphoner à – to phone / call 
12. écrire à – to write to
13. sourire à – to smile to
14. répondre à – to answer to
15. souhaiter à – to wish to
16. envoyer à – to send to
17. raconter à – to tell to
18. the list goes on but these are the most common ones.

You may find this list of French verbs followed by the preposition à  useful.

So the best thing to do is to drill with these French verbs and “lui & leur”… je lui téléphone,
nous leur vendons….

7 – Subtleties Of French Object Pronouns

As I said earlier, I cannot cover all the subtilities of French pronouns in one article… It would
take entire books. But here are some remarks I hope will help you understand the French
pronouns better.

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.

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.

B – French Pronouns – Taking Things Further

I don’t know whether what I am going to say next is going to help you or confuse you.
However, give it a try, and if it doesn’t help, then immediately forget about it.

Of course, these are shortcuts, I’m sure you’ll find examples where this doesn’t’ work.

Direct, indirect, object, and stress pronouns have kind of the same value. They have to do
with “who” the subject does an action to.

And in French, the preposition is the key.

Subject + verb + someone/something = direct object

Je regarde Pierre = je le regarde

Subject + verb + à someone = most of the time indirect object (some exceptions when some
verbs with an “à” construction require a stress pronouns)
Je donne (la fleur) à Pierre = Je lui donne (la fleur).
Subject + verb + à something = Y
Elle pense à son école = elle y pense

Subject + verb + chez, pour, avec, de . . . someone = stress pronoun

Je vais chez mes parents = Je vais chez eux.

Subject + verb + de something = en

Il parle de son école = il en parle

8 – List Of French Pronouns

For what it’s worth, here is the list of French pronouns. This way you’ll have the correct
terms and you can look more into it if you want.

I’ve included a translation… I don’t like to do it because there are many translations possible
for these French pronouns. I hope that if you remember one thing from this guide is that
translating pronouns from English is unlikely to work!

autre other indefinite pronoun

ça this indefinite demonstrative pronoun
ce this indefinite demonstrative pronoun
ceci this indefinite demonstrative pronoun
ce dont of which indefinite relative pronoun
cela that indefinite demonstrative pronoun
celle the one demonstrative pronoun
celles the ones demonstrative pronoun
celui the one demonstrative pronoun
ce que what indefinite relative pronoun
ce qui who indefinite relative pronoun
certains some indefinite pronoun
ceux the ones demonstrative pronoun
chacun each indefinite pronoun
d’autres others indefinite pronoun
dont of which relative pronoun
elle she / it stress pronoun / subject pronoun
elles they stress pronoun / subject pronoun
en some adverbial pronoun
eux them stress pronoun
il he /it subject pronoun
ils they subject pronoun
je / j’ I subject pronoun
la her /it direct object pronoun
le him/it direct object pronoun
lequel which one interrogative pronoun / relative pronoun
les them direct object pronoun
leur them indirect object pronoun
le leur theirs possessive pronoun
lui him indirect object pronoun / stress pronoun
me (m’) me direct object pronoun / indirect object
pronoun / reflexive pronoun
le mien mine possessive pronoun
moi me stress pronoun
le nôtre our possessive pronoun
nous we / us direct object /  indirect
object / reflexive /stress / subject pronoun
on we indefinite pronoun / subject pronoun
où when relative pronoun
personne noone negative pronoun
plusieurs several indefinite pronoun
que that / what interrogative pronoun / relative pronoun
quelque something indefinite pronoun
chose
quelques- some indefinite pronoun
uns
quelqu’un someone indefinite pronoun
qui who interrogative / relative pronoun
quiconque anyone relative pronoun
quoi what relative pronoun
rien nothing negative pronoun
se one reflexive pronoun
le sien his possessive pronoun
soi one indefinite pronoun / stress pronoun
te you direct object pronoun / indirect object
pronoun / reflexive pronoun
tel one indefinite pronoun
le tien your possessive pronoun
toi you stress pronoun
tout everything indefinite pronoun
tu you subject pronoun
un one indefinite pronoun
le vôtre your possessive pronoun
vous you direct object / indirect
object / reflexive / stressed / subject pronoun
y there adverbial pronoun
I hope this explanation was useful to you. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment – your
comments encourage me to keep writing more.

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