By the end of this lesson you'll be able to avoid repeating a noun, by replacing it with a small word that goes in front of the verb.
What a direct object is
In Je regarde le film, le film is the direct object: it receives the action, with no little word like à in between. To avoid saying it again, French replaces it with a pronoun.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| le | luh | him, it (masculine) |
| la | lah | her, it (feminine) |
| l' | l | him, her, it (before a vowel or silent h) |
| les | lay | them |
The choice depends on the gender and number of the noun you're replacing.
- Je regarde le film. → Je le regarde. (I'm watching it.)
- Je mange la pomme. → Je la mange. (I'm eating it.)
- Je cherche les clés. → Je les cherche. (I'm looking for them.)
Before a vowel or silent h, le and la shorten to l': Tu l'aimes ? (Do you like it?).
The noun being replaced has a definite word in front of it: le, la, les, mon, ton or ce, for instance. These articles come from the lesson on le, la and les.
Le pull ? Je le prends.
The jumper? I'll take it.
Tu aimes ce restaurant ? Oui, je l'aime.
Do you like this restaurant? Yes, I like it.
Me, te, nous, vous
There are four more, for people.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| me / m' | muh / m | me |
| te / t' | tuh / t | you (informal) |
| nous | noo | us |
| vous | voo | you (formal or plural) |
Me and te shorten to m' and t' before a vowel or silent h. Verbs you'll use include appeler (to call), as well as verbs you already know.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| appeler | ahp-LAY | to call |
Elle nous voit.
She sees us.
Je t'attends.
I'm waiting for you.
Il m'appelle.
He's calling me.
Where the pronoun goes
The pronoun goes directly before the conjugated verb.
Je les connais.
I know them.
In a negative, ne goes before the pronoun, and pas after the verb, as you learned in the lesson on negation. The pronoun stays attached to the verb.
Je ne le vois pas.
I don't see him.
After aller, pouvoir and vouloir, the pronoun goes before the infinitive, because that's the verb it belongs to. You know aller + infinitive from the lesson on the near future, and pouvoir and vouloir from the lesson on modal verbs.
Je vais le faire.
I'm going to do it.
Je ne veux pas la voir.
I don't want to see her.
Tu peux m'aider ?
Can you help me?
In a question, use intonation or est-ce que, and leave the pronoun where it is.
Est-ce que tu les achètes ?
Are you buying them?
Verbs with no preposition
Some verbs need a word like "for" or "to" in English, but not in French. Attendre (to wait for), chercher (to look for), écouter (to listen to) and regarder (to look at) all take a direct object: Je l'attends, Je l'écoute.
En français
- Tu connais Paul ? (Do you know Paul?)
- Oui, je le connais bien. (Yes, I know him well.)
- Tu le vois samedi ? (Are you seeing him on Saturday?)
- Non, je ne le vois pas samedi. Tu veux l'appeler ? (No, I'm not seeing him on Saturday. Do you want to call him?)
- Oui, je vais l'appeler. (Yes, I'm going to call him.)
What's next
Next, the lesson on indirect object pronouns shows what to do when the verb has à in front of a person. After that, the lesson on the pronoun y deals with places and things.