Understanding French Pronouns

What’s 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.

How to Pick the Right French Pronoun?

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 (s is silent)
• elles (s is silent).

Tina is feminine, singular, a third person (she).
So what would “she” be in French?

“She” would be the feminine singular pronoun: “elle”.
If you don’t understand “feminine & singular”, read my article about French number and gender before you continue reading this article

• Tina donne des fleurs.
  (Qui donne ? Tina donne = Tina is the subject)
  Tina is one person and she’s a girl/woman.
  Elle donne des fleurs.

Important: we don’t have a special “it” form to replace a car, a book etc… in French. Everything is either masculine or feminine, so “il” or “elle”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The List of French Subject Pronouns

The list of 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.

No Special “It” Pronoun in French

We don’t have a special “it” form comparable to the English “it”.
Everything: objects, concepts, animals, people are either a “he” or a “she”. This is a difficult concept for English speakers to grasp at first.

You’ll find some expressions that use an impersonal object pronoun like “il pleut” (it’s raining) but they are expressions, like idioms. We’re far from the English “it” used to replace a car…

• La voiture est rouge : elle est rouge.
  The car is red: it’s red.

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

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.

Direct and Indirect French Object Pronouns

The key to figuring out 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.

To achieve 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. Look at it as a fun mind game!

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 in elision

So for my example, “les fleurs” is replaced by “les”
= Tina les donne à Paul.
Tina gives them to Paul.

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.
Tina gives him the flowers

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).

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.
  Tina gives them to him.

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.

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 pronoun there are 2 main points to understand.

The French 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.
I drink water = I drink (some)
Je voudrais beaucoup de sucre = j’en voudrais beaucoup.
I would like a lot of sugar = I would like a lot.
J’achète trois pommes = j’en achète trois
I’m buying three apples = I’m buying three.

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
I’m dreaming about my vacation = I’m dreaming about it.
Je parle de mon voyage = j’en parle
I’m talking about my trip = I’m talking about it.

More about the French pronoun en – with audio.

The French pronoun “y”

1 – The French Pronoun Y Replaces a PLACE.
Je vais à Paris = j’y vais
I’m going to Paris = I’m going there

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
I’m thinking about my work = I’m thinking about it.

More about the pronoun Y in French in my free lesson with audio.

The pronouns Y and En are thoroughly explained + exercises + featured in the bilingual story of my intermediate French audio method À Moi Paris Level 3.

French 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

Tu aimes celui-ci ? Moi je préfère celui-là !
You like this one? I like that one better!

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns – mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs in English – refer to a noun which was previously mentioned in the sentence.

Just like French possessive adjectives, French possessive pronouns have a double logic entry:

1. you have to select the pronoun according to the subject doing the action – so just like in English chose among mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
2. you also have to select the pronoun according to the possession being replaced: is-it feminine or masculine? Singular or plural?

To understand the logic, please refer to my article on French possessive adjectives: exactly the same logic applies when choosing a French possessive pronoun.

• le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes – mine
• le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes – yours (for “tu”)
• le sien, la sienne, les siens, les siennes – his or hers
• le nôtre, la nôtre, les nôtres – ours
• le vôtre, la vôtre, les vôtres – yours (for “vous”)
• le leur, la leur, les leur – theirs 

Tu veux que je te prêtre mon livre ? Non merci: j’ai le mien.
Would you like me to lend you my book? No thanks: I have mine.

List of Indefinite Pronouns in French

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, quelques-unes	some, a few
quiconque	anyone
soi	oneself
tel, telle, tels, telles	one, someone
tout	everything
toutes, tous	everyone
tout le monde	everyone
un, l’un, une, l’une	one

List of Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are difficult to explain because they depend on the grammatical function 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 Indirect object (person)	who, what which, that, whom
Que	Direct object	whom, what, which, that
Lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles	Indirect object (thing)	what, which, that
Dont	Object of de Indicate possession	of which, from which, that 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.

What is really Confusing About French Pronouns

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

Nous & Vous – The Best French Pronouns!

Nous and vous are the form for almost all pronouns: subject, stress, object, reflexive, etc… pretty much any pronouns except for the possessive pronouns.
So if you have to write a French essay, do it at the nous or vous form, you won’t have to stress much about your pronouns!!

Lui

Lui may translate as:

1. for/with/by… him – masculine singular only when it is a stress pronoun
   Je vais avec lui – I’m going with him​
2. “him or her” when it is an indirect object pronoun.
   Je lui parle – I’m talking to him/ to her

Leur

Leur may translate as:

1. them when it’s an indirect object pronoun.
   Je leur donne mon adresse – I give them my address.
2. but it’s also the form of the possessive adjective “their”:
   Voici leur maison – Here is their house.

Le, la, les

Le, la, l’ and les could be direct object pronouns.
Je la regarde – I’m watching her​
Le, la, l’ and les could also be a definite articles meaning “the”.
La maison de la boulangère – the house of the baker (the baker’s house)

Que

“Que” may be translated as what or that or who…
Que fais-tu – what are you doing?
La fille que je regarde – the girl (who) I’m looking at.
La voiture que Pierre veut – the car (that) Pierre wants.

Qui

“Qui” may be translated as who or which…
Qui veut du pain ? Who wants bread?
Je regarde la fille qui parle à Pierre – I’m looking at the girl (who is) talking to Pierre.
Je regarde la voiture qui est rouge – I’m looking at the car which is red.

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.

MANY FRENCH VERBS take direct object pronouns.

ONLY A FEW FRENCH VERBS take indirect object pronouns:

1. acheter à – to buy 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….

Subtleties of French Object Pronouns

As I said earlier, I cannot cover all the subtleties 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.

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.

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

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 can look more into it if you like.

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
celui, celle, ceux, celles	the one(s)	demonstrative pronoun
ce que	what	indefinite relative pronoun
ce qui	who	indefinite relative pronoun
certain(e)s	some	indefinite pronoun
chacun/e	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, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles	which one(s)	interrogative pronoun / relative pronoun
les	them	direct object pronoun
leur	them	indirect object pronoun
le/la leur, les leurs	theirs	possessive pronoun
lui	him	indirect object pronoun / stress pronoun
me (m’)	me	direct object pronoun / indirect object pronoun / reflexive pronoun
le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes	mine	possessive pronoun
moi	me	stress pronoun
le/la nôtre, les nôtres	our(s)	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 chose	something	indefinite pronoun
quelques-un(e)s	some	indefinite pronoun
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, la sienne, les siens, les siennes	his/hers	possessive pronoun
soi	one	indefinite pronoun / stress pronoun
te	you	direct object pronoun / indirect object pronoun / reflexive pronoun
tel, telle, tels, telles	one	indefinite pronoun
le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes	your(s)	possessive pronoun
toi	you	stress pronoun
tout	everything	neutral pronoun
tous, toutes	everyone	indefinite pronoun
tu	you	subject pronoun
un, une	one	indefinite pronoun
le/la vôtre, les vôtres	your(s)	possessive pronoun
vous	you	direct object / indirect object / reflexive / stressed / subject pronoun
y	there	adverbial pronoun

I post new articles every week, so make sure you subscribe to the French Today newsletter – or follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Please react! Leave a comment, make a suggestion, share this article… Your engagement really encourages me to create more free French lessons!