What is an Object - French Grammar

What is an object?

Part of Grammar Courses | French Pronouns

What’s an ‘object’ or ‘an object complement’?

In French, ‘an object complement is ‘un complément d’objet’. An object complement is a part of a sentence that completes the sentence. It’s related to the verb.

In your sentence, you may find the object complement when you ask yourself the question ‘WHAT?’ or ‘WHO’, or ‘TO/FOR/ABOUT WHAT’, or ‘TO/FOR/ABOUT WHOM’. If the answer to the question is not the subject itself, the answer to it is your object complement.

• Anne donne la Tour Eiffel.
  • Anne gives WHAT? She gives la Tour Eiffel.
• Anne donne la Tour Eiffel à Arthur.
  • Anne gives the Eiffel Tower TO WHOM? She gives the Eiffel Tower to Arthur.

An object complement can be direct – un complément d’objet direct or a COD – or indirect – un complément d’objet indirect or a COI.

A COD relates directly to the verb and consequently, it has no preposition (in bold characters in the sentence below).

• Anne donne la Tour Eiffel.

A COI relates indirectly to the verb and consequently, it has a preposition (in italics in the sentence below).

• Anne pense à la Tour Eiffel.

Sometimes, you may have both a COD and a COI in the same sentence.

• Anne donne la Tour Eiffel à Arthur.

The object complement may be a verb.

• Anne aime lire.

The object complement may be a pronoun.

• Anne aime le lire.

The object complement may be a clause.

• Anne aime que la lecture soit faite le soir.

The object complement can be one or several words.

• Anne aime Jean-Luc.
• Anne aime ce livre.
• Anne aime ce beau livre.
• Anne aime ce beau livre français.

Expert Corner - Le Coin du Curieux

Because it’s called an OBJECT complement, the COD or the COI must be different from the subject and the verb in the sentence must be an action verb, and not a state verb (list of state verbs : demeurer, devenir, être, paraître, se faire, se montrer, sembler, rester, redevenir, tomber, trouver…).

• Anne est prof de français.

The verb in this sentence is EST, a state verb and Anne and the teacher are the same person, so « prof de français » is NOT a COD.

If you can switch your sentence from an active to a passive voice, the object complement hence becoming the subject, that’s another way to know that you’re dealing with a true object complement:

• Anne donne un livre.
  • Un livre est donné par Anne.

And lastly, object complements are used with transitive verbs, because the definition of a transitive verb is ‘a verb that require a complement’.

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