
Direct Object Pronouns
Les pronoms d’objets directs
Part of Grammar Courses | French Pronouns
Look at this sentence:
- Il prend le téléphone.
- IL is the acting part of the sentence, the doer. It’s the subject of the verb.
- PREND is the verb, the action itself.
- LE TÉLÉPHONE is the receiver part of the action. It’s the object of the verb.
When you replace le téléphone by a pronoun, a word replacing the noun, that pronoun keeps the same object function in the sentence. le téléphone is masculine and singular. The masculine singular pronoun is LE in our sentence today.
- Il LE prend.
What are the direct object pronouns in French?
You may want to review what an OBJECT is here.
A direct object pronoun is a pronoun that replaces an object (a person or a noun) when the verb is without a preposition in its infinitive form.
Careful! Some verbs are direct in French and indirect in English and vice-versa. For instance: CHERCHER is direct and its translation – TO LOOK FOR – is indirect because of the preposition FOR. See this course on Verbs and Their Prepositions.
Use a direct object pronoun with French verbs that carry no preposition. It comes right before the conjugated form of the verb: Il me voit.
Note the apostrophe [‘] if the verb starts with a vowel: Il m’aime.
List of direct object pronouns in French
- me …. me / m’
- you …. te / t’
- you …. vous
- her …. la
- him …. le
- it …. le
- it …. la
- us …. nous
- you …. vous
- them …. les
Examples – Exemples
- he sees me …. il me voit
- he sees you …. il te voit
- he sees you …. il vous voit
- he sees her …. il la voit
- he sees him …. il le voit
- he sees it …. il le voit
- he sees it …. il la voit
- he sees us …. il nous voit
- he sees you …. il vous voit
- he sees them …. il les voit
Practice – Exercice
Translate from French to English or from English to French.
Français
- Je les prends.
- Tu m’attends.
- Elle nous entend.
- Nous vous envoyons le paquet.
- Ils le parlent.
- Je les ai pris.
- Tu ne vas pas m’attendre ?
- Elle ne nous entendra pas.
- Il faut que nous vous envoyions le paquet.
- Ils le parleraient.
English
- I’m taking them.
- You’re waiting for me.
- She hears us.
- We’re sending you the package.
- They speak it. [to speak a language, for instance]
- I took them.
- Are you not going to wait for me?
- She won’t hear us.
- We have to send you the package.
- They would speak it.
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