What is a pronoun?
A pronoun is a word used in place of one or more nouns, and finding the right pronoun in French depends mainly on knowing exactly what you are going to replace.
So the first thing is to be able to recognize the objects in your sentences ; objects being nouns that indicate towards whom or what the action of the verb is directed.

To make it a little easier, we are going to divide the objects into only two main categories :
the direct object or the indirect object.

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What is the difference between a direct object and an indirect object?

• The direct object is the complement which indicates the object of the action expressed by the verb.

• The indirect object also indicates the object of the action expressed by the verb, but it's structure is different ; the complement is linked to the verb by a preposition. (In French : à, de, pour, avec, contre…)

Be careful : a direct object in French may be an indirect object in English and vice versa. So when you want to find the right pronoun, always look at your French sentence – don't translate into English !
Ex : Il regarde sa montre (direct object).
      He is looking at his watch (indirect object).
      Il téléphone à un ami (indirect object).
      He is calling a friend (direct object).

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The French pronouns.
 

	Direct object pronouns	Indirect object pronouns	Stress pronouns
I	me	me	moi
You	te	te	toi
He / She	le / la	lui	lui / elle
We	nous	nous	nous
You	nous	vous	vous
They	les	leur	eux / elles

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How to find the right pronoun and where to put it in the sentence.

Ideally you have to read and listen to enough French to assimilate them, so that it becomes automatic for you !
More realistically you should understand how pronouns work and then always apply the same method to find the right
pronoun and to place it in the sentence.
Even though at the beginning it's going to take you some  time... it is worth it.
 
 

How to find the right pronoun?
 
 

EXCEPTION :
This table is to help you find the right pronoun in most cases. But as usual in French, there are some exceptions.
Note the following exception :
Je pense à Pierre. Je pense à lui.
 

How to replace a noun that refers to a place?
There is another category that is important but doesn't fit in the preceeding table because it's neither a direct object
nor an indirect object : it's the nouns that refer to place or location.
Whenever you want to replace a location by a pronoun, you have to check what the preposition is.

• If the preposition is "de" (or a contraction of it), the pronoun is going to be EN.

• If the preposition is anything else (à, chez, dans, etc..., anything that indicate a location), the pronoun is going to be Y.

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Where to put the pronouns in the sentence?

The French pronouns are always placed BEFORE the verb, whether the verb is in présent, imparfait or passé composé.
Ex: Je lui parle.
      Je lui parlais.
      Je lui ai parlé.
 

There are only two exceptions :

• In a sentence with a near future, or whenever you have more than one verb, the pronouns are placed just before the last verb.

• In the affirmative command form, the pronouns are placed after the verb.

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How to use double object pronouns?

The pronouns are always going to be in the same order :
- the first and second person (whether direct or indirect object)
- the direct object third person
- the indirect object third person
- y
- en

It can also be summarized as follows:

• Normal construction :

• Affirmative command form construction :

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Try to remember.

Learn some short sentences by heart ; it's the easiest way to remember how to use them.
Elle me le donne ; il le lui dit ; nous lui en parlons ; etc…
Je vais lui en parler ; nous allons y aller ; etc...
Donne-le-moi!

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