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

1. me …. me / m’
2. you …. te / t’
3. you …. vous
4. her …. la
5. him …. le
6. it …. le
7. it …. la
8. us …. nous
9. you …. vous
10. them …. les

Examples – Exemples

1. he sees me …. il me voit
2. he sees you …. il te voit
3. he sees you …. il vous voit
4. he sees her …. il la voit
5. he sees him …. il le voit
6. he sees it …. il le voit
7. he sees it …. il la voit
8. he sees us …. il nous voit
9. he sees you …. il vous voit
10. he sees them …. il les voit

Practice – Exercice

Translate from French to English or from English to French.

Français

1. Je les prends.
2. Tu m’attends.
3. Elle nous entend.
4. Nous vous envoyons le paquet.
5. Ils le parlent.
6. Je les ai pris.
7. Tu ne vas pas m’attendre ?
8. Elle ne nous entendra pas.
9. Il faut que nous vous envoyions le paquet.
10. Ils le parleraient.

English

1. I’m taking them.
2. You’re waiting for me.
3. She hears us.
4. We’re sending you the package.
5. They speak it. [to speak a language, for instance]
6. I took them.
7. Are you not going to wait for me?
8. She won’t hear us.
9. We have to send you the package.
10. They would speak it.

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