The concept of object pronouns seems to present a challenge for many students, which is unfortunate as we use pronouns an awful lot. The good news is that once you break down the terms and understand the principles underlying them, they are less troublesome than they first appear! This will be part 1 of a 2-part series on object pronouns.

To start with, let us interrogate the term ‘object pronoun’. It may help to separate the terms ‘object’ and ‘pronoun’ and try to understand them separately first.

An object is basically the agent that receives the action of a sentence. In Dan ate the pizza, ‘pizza’ is the object because it receives the action of being eaten. Another way to express the same meaning would be The pizza was eaten by Dan. The subject in this sentence would be Dan, as he performs the action of eating the pizza.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. It is that simple. The prefix ‘pro-’ means ‘for’ or ‘in favour of something’. So, a pronoun is for, or in favour of, a noun. Pronouns are widely used across English and French, and there is a very good reason for that. They prevent needless repetition of a previously-mentioned thing. Read the following sentences and see how they sound: Dan opened the door. Dan put his bag on the floor and opened the fridge. Dan took out some pizza and warmed it up in the microwave before sitting down to eat it. Doesn’t the constant repetition of ‘Dan’ sound jarring? Now compare that with this: Dan opened the door. He put his bag on the floor and opened the fridge. He took out some pizza and warmed it up in the microwave before sitting down to eat it. Doesn’t it sound much better with the use of ‘he’ after the initial mention of Dan?

Now let’s put both terms together: an object pronoun is a pronoun that takes the place of an aforementioned object. Dan took the pizza out of the fridge. He warmed it up in the microwave.The use of ‘it’ avoids needless repetition of ‘pizza’. There are two types of object pronouns: direct and indirect.

Direct object pronouns (henceforth DOPs, also known as PODs or pronom d’objet direct in French) are exactly what they sound like: pronouns that take the place of a direct object. A direct object is basically an object that follows the verb directly without a preposition. In Dan ate the pizza, ‘pizza’ is a direct object because it follows the verb ‘ate’ directly without a preposition interrupting the flow. Therefore the ‘it’ used to replace ‘pizza’ in He warmed it up in the microwave is a DOP.

Now for a French example: Je vois ma famille quand je rentre chez moi. ‘Ma famille’ is the object in this sentence, and it is a direct one because it follows ‘vois’ directly. A DOP would be needed to replace ‘ma famille’ in subsequent sentences.

The DOPs in French are:

me → me

te → you

le/la/l’ → him/her/it (masc. sing.; fem. sing.; masc./fem. sing. before a vowel respectively)

nous → us

vous → you

les → them (masc. and fem. plural)

To apply a DOP to the previous example, we remove ‘ma famille’ and replace it with the appropriate form of the DOP (in this case ‘la’, the third-person feminine singular version):

Je la vois quand je rentre chez moi – I see them [my family] when I return home (don’t be confused by ‘la’ being equated with ‘them’; in French ‘ma famille’ behaves like a singular noun whereas in English it is plural)

As you may have observed from the example above, DOPs (and IOPs) are placed before the verb in French.

In the passé composé, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the DOP. E.g. J’ai vu ma famille quand je suis rentré chez moi → Je l’ai vue quand je suis rentré chez moi

As a DOP, ‘le’ can also be used to replace a whole phrase or sentence. This usage is known as impersonal because it does not replace a specific entity and corresponds to the impersonal ‘it’ in English:

Quand elle a envie de parler du travail ou de ses études, elle le fait avec ses copines → When she wants to talk about work or her studies, she does it with her friends

In this example, ‘le’ replaces ‘parler du travail ou de ses études’. In front of a vowel, it contracts to l’.

Be careful not to confuse le the pronoun with le the definite article. This difference becomes significant when le is preceded by a preposition such as à or de. The definite article contracts in this case while the pronoun does not. Observe the following examples:

Il vient du Canada – ‘du’ here is a contraction of ‘de + le’ (Il vient de le Canada, but ‘de le’ is incorrect as le here is a definite article and therefore must contract to ‘du’). The same principle applies to ‘à + le’ becoming ‘au’.

There is no contraction in the following statement: Paul a réussi à le convaincre de venir avec eux → Paul managed to convince him to come with them (le here is a DOP which replaces an aforementioned person, and as such does not contract in spite of the preposition ‘à’).