French grammar · Elementary (A2)
Object pronouns: le, la, les, lui, leur
How to say it, him, her, them, to him and to her in French, and where these little words go in the sentence.
Direct objects: le, la, l', les
A direct object is the person or thing that receives the action, with no word like “to” in between: (I'll take the jacket). To avoid repeating it, replace it with (masculine), (feminine) or (plural). and become l' before a vowel or a silent h.
These pronouns can mean “it”, “him”, “her” or “them”. They look like the articles , , , but they do a different job and come before the verb.
- La veste ? Je la prends.The jacket? I'll take it.
- Le pull ? Je ne le prends pas.The jumper? I won't take it.
- Tes parents ? Je les vois samedi.Your parents? I'm seeing them on Saturday.
- Vous l'avez en 42 ?Do you have it in a 42?
Indirect objects: lui, leur
Many verbs link to a person with : , , , , , (to ask). To replace + a person, use (to him or to her) or (to them). is the same for a man and a woman.
Some verbs work differently from English. (to call someone) takes a direct object: . takes : .
- Je lui donnerai le message.I'll give him the message. / I'll give her the message.
- Je leur envoie un texto.I'm sending them a text.
- Vous pouvez lui dire que j'ai appelé ?Could you tell her that I called?
Me, te, nous, vous
For the first and second person, French uses the same word for both kinds of object: (m'), (t'), , . So (he sees me) and (he speaks to me) both use .
| Person | Direct (him, her, it…) | Indirect (to him, to her…) |
|---|---|---|
| I | (m') | (m') |
| you (friend) | (t') | (t') |
| he, she, it | , (l') | |
| we | ||
| you (polite, plural) | ||
| they |
Where they go
The pronoun goes just before the verb it belongs to. In the negative, comes before the pronoun and after the verb. With , or + infinitive, the pronoun goes before the infinitive. In the passé composé, it goes before or .
The only exception is a positive instruction (the imperative): there the pronoun comes after the verb with a hyphen, and and become and : , .
- Je vais la chercher.I'll go and get it.
- Je ne lui ai pas parlé.I didn't speak to him.
- Elle peut vous rappeler ?Can she call you back?
- Appelle-moi ce soir.Call me tonight.
Two pronouns together
When a verb has two object pronouns, one for the thing and one for the person, both go before the verb in a fixed order: first, then , then . and come last, with at the very end: , , .
In a positive instruction, both pronouns go after the verb, and the thing comes first: (Give it to me), .
| First | Then | Then | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| , then |
- Le ticket ? Je vous le donne.The receipt? I'll give it to you.
- La cafetière ? On vous la rembourse.The coffee machine? We'll refund you for it.
- Le message ? Je le lui ai donné.The message? I gave it to her.
- Je ne vous la rembourse pas.I won't refund you for it.