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Lesson 1 of 6Les pronoms: Saying More with Less
Unit 4 · Lesson 1 of 6

Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns in Every Tense

A quick recap of the Grade 9 object pronouns, then the Grade 10 layer: letting the French verb (not the English one) decide between direct and indirect, placing the pronoun correctly in every tense, and making the past participle agree with a direct object pronoun.

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Key things to remember

  1. 1Direct: me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les. Indirect (à + person): me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. Lui = to him or to her; leur never takes an s.
  2. 2The French verb decides: écouter, regarder, attendre, chercher are direct (je l'attends); téléphoner à, répondre à, ressembler à, obéir à are indirect (je lui téléphone).
  3. 3Simple tenses: pronoun before the conjugated verb (je la verrai). Compound tenses: before the auxiliary (je l'ai vue). Verb + infinitive: before the infinitive (je vais la voir).
  4. 4ne...pas wraps the pronoun and its verb together: Je ne l'ai pas vue. Je ne lui téléphone pas.
  5. 5The past participle agrees with a direct object pronoun placed before avoir (Je les ai vues), never with lui or leur (Je leur ai parlé).

In Grade 9 you learned to stop repeating nouns: instead of Tu regardes le match ? Oui, je regarde le match, you say Oui, je le regarde (Yes, I'm watching it). You met le, la, les for direct objects, lui, leur for indirect objects, and me, te, nous, vous for both, all placed in front of the verb in the present tense. Grade 10 takes that one step further. Real conversations jump between tenses — I saw her yesterday, I'll call her tomorrow, I'm going to text her tonight — and each tense has its own rule for where the pronoun sits. You will also learn why je l'attends (I'm waiting for her) has no à while je lui téléphone (I'm calling her) does, and why Je les ai vues ends in -es.

Grade 9 recap: personDirect objectIndirect object (à + person)English
jeme (m' before a vowel)me (m')me / to me
tute (t')te (t')you / to you
ille (l')luihim, it / to him
ellela (l')luiher, it / to her
nousnousnousus / to us
vousvousvousyou / to you
ils / elleslesleurthem / to them
Only the third person has separate direct and indirect forms. Lui means to him or to her, and leur never takes an s. Le and la shorten to l' before a vowel or a mute h; lui, leur and les never shorten.

Direct or indirect? Let the French verb decide

The choice between le and lui depends on how the French verb is built, not the English one. If the French verb takes its object directly (regarder quelque chose), use le, la, les. If it takes à + a person (téléphoner à quelqu'un), use lui, leur. English is a poor guide here: listen to looks indirect but écouter is direct, and call looks direct but téléphoner à is indirect. The verbs below are the ones anglophones most often get wrong, so learn each one with its construction.

ADirect in French (no à)
  • écouter quelqu'un — to listen to: Je l'écoute. (I'm listening to him / her.)
  • regarder — to look at: Elle les regarde. (She's looking at them.)
  • attendre — to wait for: Nous t'attendons. (We're waiting for you.)
  • chercher — to look for: Je la cherche. (I'm looking for her / it.)
  • aider — to help: Il m'aide. (He helps me.)
  • payer — to pay for: Je les paie. (I'm paying for them.)
BIndirect in French (à + person)
  • téléphoner à — to call: Je lui téléphone. (I'm calling him / her.)
  • répondre à — to answer: Elle leur répond. (She answers them.)
  • ressembler à — to look like: Tu lui ressembles. (You look like him / her.)
  • obéir à — to obey: Ils nous obéissent. (They obey us.)
  • plaire à — to please: Ce film me plaît. (I like this movie.)
  • dire / demander / donner / écrire à — Je leur écris. (I'm writing to them.)
A few à verbs refuse lui and leur
With penser à (to think about), faire attention à (to pay attention to) and s'intéresser à (to be interested in), a person is not replaced by lui or leur. You keep à and use a stressed pronoun instead: Je pense à elle (I'm thinking about her), never je lui pense. You will meet these stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles) in the lesson on stressed and possessive pronouns.

Where the pronoun goes in every tense

Tense or structureWhere the pronoun goesExampleEnglish
présentbefore the conjugated verbJe la vois. / Je ne la vois pas.I see her. / I don't see her.
imparfaitbefore the conjugated verbJe la voyais souvent.I used to see her often.
futur simplebefore the conjugated verbJe la verrai demain.I'll see her tomorrow.
conditionnelbefore the conjugated verbJe la verrais plus souvent.I would see her more often.
passé composébefore the auxiliaryJe l'ai vue. / Je ne l'ai pas vue.I saw her. / I didn't see her.
plus-que-parfaitbefore the auxiliaryJe l'avais déjà vue.I had already seen her.
verb + infinitive (futur proche, vouloir, pouvoir, devoir)before the infinitiveJe vais la voir. / Je ne vais pas la voir.I'm going to see her. / I'm not going to see her.
question with inversionstays before the verbLa vois-tu ? / L'as-tu vue ?Do you see her? / Did you see her?
In simple tenses and compound tenses the pronoun sits in front of the one conjugated verb. With aller, vouloir, pouvoir, devoir and most other verbs followed by an infinitive, the pronoun moves to the infinitive, because that is the verb it is the object of.
Where does the pronoun go? One sentence, every tenseJe vois Marie. → Marie = direct object, feminine → laI see Marie. → I see her.TenseSentenceWhy the pronoun sits thereprésentJelavois.right before the conjugated verbprésent, négatifJenelavoispas.ne … pas wraps the pronoun + verbas one blockpassé composéJel'aivue.before the auxiliary; la → l' before a vowelvue agrees: la (fem.) comes before avoirpassé composé, nég.Jenel'aipasvue.ne … pas wraps pronoun + auxiliary;the participle stays outsidefutur procheJevaislavoir.before the infinitive: she is theobject of voir, not of allerimpératifRegarde-la!the one exception: AFTER the verb,joined by a hyphenimpératif, négatifNelaregardepas!negative command: back beforethe verb, as usuallapronounverbthe verb it attaches tonenegationvue = agreementRule of thumb: the pronoun goes right before the verb it belongs to — except in a positive command.
Fig 1Where an object pronoun sits: before the conjugated verb in simple tenses, before the auxiliary in compound tenses, and before the infinitive when a verb is followed by an infinitive.
One question settles the position
Ask: which verb is the pronoun the object of? In Je vais la voir, she is the one being seen, not the one being gone, so la goes in front of voir. In Je l'ai vue, the auxiliary ai carries the tense, so the pronoun goes in front of it. And ne...pas wraps the conjugated verb together with any pronoun in front of it: Je ne l'ai pas vue. A pronoun that belongs to an infinitive stays with the infinitive, outside the negation: Je ne vais pas la voir.

Agreement: the direct object pronoun before avoir

  • A direct object pronoun placed before avoir makes the past participle agree with it: Mes cousines ? Je les ai vues hier. (les = mes cousines, feminine plural → -es.)
  • La voiture ? Il l'a vendue. (l' = la voiture, feminine singular → -e.)
  • Indirect pronouns never trigger agreement: Mes cousines ? Je leur ai parlé hier. (leur = to them.)
  • Me, te, nous, vous agree only when they are direct: Elle nous a invités. (she invited us — direct) but Elle nous a téléphoné. (she called us — téléphoner à, indirect).
  • With the futur proche there is no participle, so there is nothing to agree: Je vais les voir.
Leur or leurs?
The pronoun leur (to them) goes in front of a verb and never takes an s. The possessive adjective leur / leurs (their) goes in front of a noun and takes -s when the noun is plural. One sentence can have both: Je leur rends leurs cahiers. (I'm giving them back their notebooks.)
In context: a message from a summer job
Salut Thomas ! Mon emploi d'été au camp de jour à Moncton, je l'adore. Ce matin, la directrice m'a appelé très tôt : deux moniteurs étaient malades, alors elle m'a demandé de les remplacer. Les enfants ? Je les ai emmenés à la plage et je leur ai appris un nouveau jeu. Une petite fille a perdu sa casquette ; je l'ai cherchée partout et je l'ai trouvée sous un banc ! Ses parents ? Je leur ai téléphoné pour les rassurer. Demain, je vais les revoir et je vais leur montrer comment faire un feu de camp. À plus, Samuel

Translation: Hi Thomas! I love my summer job at the day camp in Moncton. This morning the director called me really early: two counsellors were sick, so she asked me to replace them. The kids? I took them to the beach and taught them a new game. A little girl lost her cap; I looked for it everywhere and found it under a bench! Her parents? I called them to reassure them. Tomorrow I'm going to see them again and I'm going to show them how to make a campfire. Later, Samuel. Check the details: emmenés agrees with les (= les enfants, masculine plural) and cherchée, trouvée agree with l' (= la casquette). Je leur ai appris and je leur ai téléphoné have no agreement because leur is indirect. Elle m'a demandé has none either: demander à quelqu'un makes m' indirect. In de les remplacer, pour les rassurer, je vais les revoir, the pronoun sits in front of the infinitive.

Worked examples

Reveal one step at a time and try to beat it to the next line.

Example 1
Translate: My parents? I didn't answer them.
Example 2
Translate: My keys? I'm going to look for them.
Example 3
Rewrite Je regarde cette série with a pronoun in four tenses: présent, passé composé, futur simple and futur proche.
Example 4
Complete with the passé composé of inviter, then of téléphoner: Nos voisins nous ___ (inviter). / Nos voisins nous ___ (téléphoner). (nous = Léa and her sister, speaking about themselves)

Where marks get lost

  • Using an indirect pronoun with a direct verb: je lui attends, je lui écoute. Attendre and écouter take a direct object: je l'attends, je l'écoute.
  • Using a direct pronoun with an à verb: je la téléphone, il les répond. Correct: je lui téléphone, il leur répond.
  • Putting the pronoun in front of the first verb when a second verb is an infinitive: je la vais voir, je le veux faire. In modern French it goes before the infinitive: je vais la voir, je veux le faire.
  • Splitting the pronoun from the auxiliary: j'ai la vue, je n'ai pas lui parlé. Correct: je l'ai vue, je ne lui ai pas parlé.
  • Agreeing with an indirect pronoun or writing leurs as a pronoun: je leurs ai parlés. Correct: je leur ai parlé.

Flashcards 9

Direct object pronouns
Indirect object pronouns (à + person)
I'm waiting for her.
I'm calling him.
+ 5 more

Practice

1
Choose the correct pronoun: Mes cousines ? Je ___ ai vues hier soir.
2
Replace à ta grand-mère with a pronoun (write only the pronoun): Tu téléphones à ta grand-mère ? Oui, je ___ téléphone.
3
Rewrite with a pronoun replacing la radio (write the whole sentence without the period): J'écoute la radio.
4
Translate: I'm going to call them tonight.
5
Tu as vu Marc au match ? Answer in the negative with a pronoun.
6
Write the past participle of lire with the correct agreement: Ta lettre ? Je l'ai ___ hier.
7
Write the past participle of écrire with the correct agreement: Mes grands-parents ? Nous leur avons ___ la semaine dernière.
8
Write the past participle of inviter with the correct agreement: Maya nous a ___ à sa fête. (nous = Chloé and me, two girls)
9
Fill in both blanks: Je ___ rends ___ cahiers. (I'm giving them back their notebooks.)
10
Translate with inversion: Did you see it? (it = le film)
11
Match each English sentence with its French translation.
I'm waiting for her.
I'm answering her.
I'm looking at them.
I'm calling them.
I'm looking for him.
I'm writing to him.
12
Put the words in order: I didn't talk to him.
  1. 1pas
  2. 2ai
  3. 3parlé
  4. 4Je
  5. 5ne
  6. 6lui

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