Pronouns in French can get rather complicated, especially when incorporating many in one sentence. Memorize the order presented in the table below and your difficulties will cease to exist. Note that you will rarely, if ever, have a sentence that contains one of everything in the following list.
Subject Pronouns |
je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles, etc. |
Ne |
|
Personal Pronouns |
me, te, se, nous, vous, |
Direct Object Pronouns |
le, la , les, l’ |
Indirect Object Pronouns: |
lui, leur |
Y |
This ordering is commonly referred to as the “Donkey Law”. Remembering what sound a donkey makes helps students to remember the order of y and en. |
En |
This ordering is commonly referred to as the “Donkey Law”. Remembering what sound a donkey makes helps students to remember the order of y and en. |
Auxiliary Verb(depending on the tense being used) |
|
Pas |
|
Conjugated Verb |
Examples:
Je ne le lui ai pas donné hier soir. (I did not give it to him last night.)
Il en veut. (He wants some.)
Tu leur y parlerais. (You would talk to them there.)
Elle y en a vu. (She saw some there.)
Mon prof me fait rire beaucoup. (My teacher makes me laugh a lot.)
Nous y pensons . (We are thinking about it.)
Sentences with Two Verbs:
Regarding sentences with two verbs, typically the negation ( ne … pas) goes around the first verb (the conjugated one) and the pronouns (excluding the subject pronoun of course) go between the two verbs. Remember that the second verb will likely be an infinitive.
There are however, exceptions to these general rules. Notice that the fifth example above includes two verbs, but the personal pronoun proceeds both.
Examples:
Je ne veux pas le lui donner. (I do not want to give it to him.)
Tu peux leur y parler. (You can talk to them there.)
Nous voudrions y penser. (We would like to think about it.)
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