Invergordon Academy
Languages Department
Grammar Pages

Pronoun objects             me, you, him, her, it, us, them (direct)
                                        to me, to you, to him, to her, to us, to them (indirect)

In English we put the pronoun object after the verb

e.g.     I see her
           She’s watching them
           We are speaking to you

In French, all pronoun objects go before the verb, but after the person/subject.
e.g.     Je la vois
           Elle les regarde
           Nous vous parlons

All the pronoun objects you will need appear in the table below, with their translation in English. If you have to use more
than one pronoun object in a phrase, they follow a certain order in French – the order of the columns in which they appear.

N.B. This rule applies to every tense, but remember that in the perfect tense it is the part of "avoir" that is the active verb,
so the pronoun object goes before the part of "avoir".

1                                         2                             3                                 4
DIRECT/INDIRECT         DIRECT                 INDIRECT
me     me/to me
te         you/to you
se        him/herself              le     him/it(m)            lui     to him/her         y      there/to it
           to him/herself         la     her/it (f)             leur   to them             en   of it/some
nous    us/to us                   les   them                                                                        
vous     you/to you
se         themselves
            to themselves

examples:

Je te les donne                     I give them to you

Elle me la vend                     She is selling it(f) to me

Nous leur en parlons             We speak to them about it

Tu le lui expliques                  You explain it to her

Vous leur en parlez                You speak to them about it

N.B. The pronoun objects follow the order of the columns. This applies to the perfect tense as well, but there they must go
before the part of "avoir". If the pronoun object is direct, then the past participle must agree with its number and gender.
(Add an "e" to make it feminine, "s" to make it (plural). This is called the PDO (preceding direct object).

e.g.     Je te les ai donnés                 I gave them to you

           Elle me l’a vendue                 She sold it(f) to me

           Nous leur en avons parlé     We spoke to them about it

           Tu le lui as expliqué               You explained it to her

           Vous leur en avez parlé         You spoke to them about it