Understanding French Pronouns

Author: Camille Chevalier-Karfis

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.

First, let’s see how to pick the right French pronoun.

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, 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.

À Moi Paris Audiobook Method

A new approach to learning both traditional and modern French logically structured for English speakers.

(836 Reviews)

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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.

French Subject Pronouns

The list of French 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.

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.

À Moi Paris Audiobook Method

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Direct and Indirect French Object Pronouns

The key to figuring out French 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.

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.

Your grammar questions are:

  1. subject + verb + qui/quoi ? = COD
  2. subject + verb + Ă  qui = COI

Now let’s take an example, it will make much more sense this way.

  • Tina donne les fleurs Ă  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 + Ă  qui ?
Tina donne Ă  qui ?
Answer: Ă  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!

French 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 Ă  Paul.
Tina gives them to Paul.

French 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 Ă  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 pronouns 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, Ă  l’, Ă  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 â€“ masculine singular
  • celle â€“ feminine singular
  • ceux â€“ masculine plural
  • celles â€“ feminine plural

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

French 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 nĂ´tre, la nĂ´tre, les nĂ´tres – ours
  • le vĂ´tre, la vĂ´tre, les vĂ´tres – 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.

French Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are unspecific and are used in place of nouns.

autre(s)another one, others
certain(e)scertain ones
chacun(e)each one
onone
plusieursseveral
quelque chosesomething
quelqu’unsomeone
quelques-uns, quelques-unessome, a few
quiconqueanyone
soioneself
tel, telle, tels, tellesone, someone
tout everything
toutes, touseveryone
tout le mondeeveryone
un, l’un, une, l’uneone

French relative 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.

QuiSubject
Indirect object (person)
who, what
which, that, whom
QueDirect objectwhom, what, which, that
Lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquellesIndirect object (thing)what, which, that
DontObject of de
Indicate possession
of which, from which, that
whose
OĂšIndicate place or timewhen, 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.

A LOT OF 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 Ă  – 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. tĂŠlĂŠphoner Ă  – 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 Ă   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 subtilities 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 tĂŠlĂŠ.
    Je regarde quoi ? La tĂŠlĂŠ.
    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 Ă  mon ami.
    Je parle Ă  qui ? Ă  mon ami.
    Je lui parle.

French pronouns – 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 you can look more into it if you want.

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!

autreotherindefinite pronoun
çathisindefinite demonstrative pronoun
cethisindefinite demonstrative pronoun
cecithisindefinite demonstrative pronoun
ce dontof whichindefinite relative pronoun
celathatindefinite demonstrative pronoun
celui, celle, ceux, cellesthe one(s)demonstrative pronoun
ce quewhatindefinite relative pronoun
ce quiwhoindefinite relative pronoun
certain(e)ssomeindefinite pronoun
chacun/eeachindefinite pronoun
d’autresothersindefinite pronoun
dontof whichrelative pronoun
elleshe / itstress pronoun / subject pronoun
ellestheystress pronoun / subject pronoun
ensomeadverbial pronoun
euxthemstress pronoun
ilhe /itsubject pronoun
ilstheysubject pronoun
je / j’Isubject pronoun
laher /itdirect object pronoun
lehim/itdirect object pronoun
lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelleswhich one(s)interrogative pronoun / relative pronoun
lesthemdirect object pronoun
leurthemindirect object pronoun
le/la leur, les leurstheirspossessive pronoun
luihimindirect object pronoun / stress pronoun
me (m’)medirect object pronoun / indirect object pronoun / reflexive pronoun
le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennesminepossessive pronoun
moimestress pronoun
le/la nĂ´tre, les nĂ´tresour(s)possessive pronoun
nouswe / usdirect object /  indirect object / reflexive /stress / subject pronoun
onweindefinite pronoun / subject pronoun
oĂšwhenrelative pronoun
personnenoonenegative pronoun
plusieursseveralindefinite pronoun
quethat / whatinterrogative pronoun / relative pronoun
quelque chosesomethingindefinite pronoun
quelques-un(e)ssomeindefinite pronoun
quelqu’unsomeoneindefinite pronoun
quiwhointerrogative / relative pronoun
quiconqueanyonerelative pronoun
quoiwhatrelative pronoun
riennothingnegative pronoun
seonereflexive pronoun
le sien, la sienne, les siens, les sienneshis/herspossessive pronoun
soioneindefinite pronoun / stress pronoun
teyoudirect object pronoun / indirect object pronoun / reflexive pronoun
tel, telle, tels, tellesoneindefinite pronoun
le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennesyour(s)possessive pronoun
toiyoustress pronoun
touteverythingneutral pronoun
tous, touteseveryoneindefinite pronoun
tuyousubject pronoun
un, uneoneindefinite pronoun
le/la vĂ´tre, les vĂ´tresyour(s)possessive pronoun
vousyoudirect object / indirect object / reflexive / stressed / subject pronoun
ythereadverbial pronoun

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Author: Camille Chevalier-Karfis

Camille Chevalier-Karfis

Born and raised in Paris, I have been teaching today's French to adults for 25+ years in the US and France. Based on my students' goals and needs, I've created unique downloadable French audiobooks focussing on French like it's spoken today, for all levels. Come to Paimpol and enjoy an exclusive French immersion homestay with me in Brittany.

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