Understanding French Pronouns: What Is A Pronoun ?
Understanding French Pronouns: What Is A Pronoun ?
Understanding French Pronouns: What Is A Pronoun ?
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.
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”.
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.
Qui + verb is the grammatical question you ask to figure out the subject.
Since “Tina” answers “qui + verb”, Tina is the subject.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
The list of French subject pronouns to replace one single entity is:
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.
Subject pronouns, their use and pronunciation is explained in depth, with many examples and
audio in my beginner French learning method.
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.
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.
Now let’s take an example, it will make much more sense this way.
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
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.
Me, te, le/la, nous, vous, les – note me, te, le/la become m’, t’, l’ + vowel or h
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).
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.
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
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.
D – Indefinite 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.
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…
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….
Note that the COD may be a thing or a person, an animal… So animate or inanimate.
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.
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
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!
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