TABLE 3.H Summary table of possessive pronouns
Personal pronouns are forms that are used in place of a noun phrase when that phrase is already known from the situation, linguistic or contextual. Personal pronouns have different (but overlapping) forms depending on whether they are subjects, direct objects, indirect objects or objects of a preposition. They agree in person and number with the noun phrase for which they stand.
Personal pronouns take their name from the fact that they can be classified as first person (je, me, moi, nous), second person (tu, te, toi, vous) or third person (il, elle, lui, les; ils, leur, eux, elles). They do not necessarily refer to people; e.g. elle is a personal pronoun, but it refers to the inanimate émission in: elle est intéressante, cette émission ‘That programme’s interesting’.
Personal pronouns contrast with impersonal pronouns, which do not refer to other noun phrases. An impersonal pronoun (usually in subject position) does not stand for any person, place, thing, idea, etc. il, ce, cela, ça can be impersonal pronouns in French: e.g. Il pleut ‘It’s raining’; Il est tard ‘It’s late’; Ça me fait peur d’y aller la nuit ‘It scares me to go there at night’.
Neutral pronouns (ce, cela, ça) normally refer to events, actions, states or general classes of people or things, e.g. Vous viendrez dîner ce soir. C’est prévu. ‘Come to dinner this evening. It’s all taken care of’ (C’ refers to the event ‘Come to dinner’).
Stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui, elle, soi, nous, vous, eux, elles) are used for emphasis and also appear after prepositions.
Demonstrative pronouns (celui, celle, ceux, celles, which can have the suffix -ci or -là) are used where English uses ‘the one’, i.e. to specify noun phrases in a way which distinguishes one from another. They can refer to people or things.
Possessive pronouns (le(s) mien(s), le(s) tien(s), le(s) sien(s), le(s) nôtre(s), le(s) vôtre(s), le(s) leur(s)) are used where English uses ‘mine’, ‘hers’, ‘yours’, etc.
TABLE 3.A Summary table of subject pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural | ||
| First person | je | I | nous | we |
| Second person | tu | you | vous | you (plural, polite) |
| Third person | ||||
| masculine feminine non-specific |
il elle on |
he, it she, it one, we, people, they |
ils elles |
they they |
| neutral | ce, cela, ça | it, that | ||
| impersonal | il, ce, cela, ça | it, that, there |
In declarative sentences, subject pronouns normally appear immediately before the verb which carries the tense:
They can only be separated from this verb by the ne of negation, and by other pre-verbal pronouns:
Unlike in English, subject pronouns cannot normally be separated from the verb by adverbials or parenthetical expressions:
| NOT | *Je souvent dîne avec Laura |
| I often dine with Laura | |
| NOT | *Il, paraît-il, ne prend pas de café |
| He, it seems, isn't having coffee |
versus the grammatical Je dîne souvent avec Laura, Il ne prend pas de café, paraît-il.
In yes/no questions involving inversion (see Chapter 14.2.3), subject pronouns appear immediately after the verb which carries the tense:
| Sait-il nager? | Can he swim? |
| Est-elle arrivée? | Has she arrived? |
| Ont-ils mangé? | Have they eaten? |
(For the formation of yes/no questions, see Chapter 14.2.)
When subject pronouns follow the verb in this way nothing else can intervene:
| Ne le croyez-vous pas? | Don't you believe it? |
| Ne le lui avez-vous pas donné? | Didn't you give it to him? |
| Dînent-ils souvent ensemble? | Do they often dine together? |
vous can have two functions: to address more than one person, and as a polite form of address to one person when there is a certain ‘social distance’ between the speaker and the addressee. tu is used only to address one person when there is no social distance between speaker and addressee.
In its plural use, vous refers simply to more than one addressee, whether social intimates or not:
When one person is being addressed it is difficult to give hard and fast rules about when to use tu and when to use the polite vous. Generally, one can say that the non-native speaker would be well advised to use vous from the outset, and to allow the native speaker to take the initiative about any change to tu. Table 3.B illustrates some uses of tu and polite vous, but it is not possible to give an exhaustive list of such usage. Individual speakers may vary in their own preferences, and usage may vary regionally (for example, it is often said that tu is used more readily in the south of France than in the north).
TABLE 3.B Examples of the use of tu and polite vous
| Context | Typical usage by two speakers |
| Adult strangers meeting for the first time in formal contexts: e.g. business meetings, interviews, dealing with state administration and services. | Both use vous. |
| Adults meeting in informal contexts: e.g. neighbours, socializing, shopping. | Initially both use vous, but with continued contact it is likely that they will change to tu, especially with young adults (under 40). |
| Professional superior and inferior | Generally both use vous, but in some organizations the inferior may use vous and the superior tu. |
| Professional equals | Both use tu, but older speakers (50-ish or over) may use vous. |
| Immediate family | Both use tu. |
| Distant relatives: e.g. second cousins, great aunts/uncles, etc. | Both use tu, but there is a tendency to use vous when older family members are involved. |
| Friends | Typically tu but older speakers (50-ish or over) may use vous. This does not necessarily indicate less warmth in the friendship. |
| Adults to young children | Adults use tu to young children up to early adolescence. When very young they will respond with tu, but as they grow older they are expected to learn when and where vous is required of them. |
| Teachers and pupils | Teachers typically use tu to children under 14 and vous to older pupils, but some teachers continue to use tu, either to express power over their pupils, or solidarity with them. The younger the teacher, the greater the likelihood that tu will be used. Pupils typically use vous to teachers, occasionally tu. Under tens are rarely expected to say vous to their teacher. |
| Students | Both use tu from the first meeting. |
Certain social sub-groups have their own internal norms for the use of tu and polite vous. For example, in sports teams, in left-wing political parties, and in trade unions, tu is the generalized form of address.
There are also a number of contexts where the expected use of polite vous between speakers is not met, and the actual pronoun form used is tu. For exam ple, a stranger approaching you in the street and using the tu form, where nor mally vous is expected, may create the impression of an unwanted degree of intimacy; or it may indicate arrogance or contempt. Other examples of such ‘marked’ use are:
In street altercations, e.g. between motorists. The effect produced is one of insult.
Police interrogating suspects use the tu form, but suspects are expected to reciprocate with the vous form. The effect produced is one of domination.
As a special case of the use of tu, Protestants have always addressed God with the tu form, but Catholics have only done so since 1967; before that God was addressed with the vous form.
The third person pronouns il/ils and elle/elles normally refer to people and things (both concrete and abstract) and the choice of which one to use is usu ally determined by the grammatical person, gender and number of the noun referred to:
With a handful of nouns, the real gender (sex) of the person referred to may determine the choice of third person pronouns il/ils or elle/elles. For example, victime, recrue, sentinelle are grammatically feminine nouns, but not all ‘victims’, ‘recruits’ or ‘sentries’ are necessarily female: mannequin, président, conseiller munic ipal are grammatically masculine nouns, but not all ‘models’, ‘presidents’ or ‘town councillors’ are necessarily male. In such cases the real gender of the person referred to normally determines the choice of il/ils or elle/elles:
With grammatically singular nouns that refer to more than one person or thing, the choice of pronoun is normally singular il or elle:
For collective nouns see Chapter 1.1.3.
When a group (of people or things) of mixed gender is referred to, ils is the pronoun used. Compare:
with:
Plural ils may be used to refer to an indefinite or arbitrary group of people:
When clauses containing unstressed subject pronouns are coordinated by et, ou or ne . . . ni, the second pronoun may be deleted:
When the verb is accompanied by auxiliary avoir or être, if the subject pronoun is deleted, the auxiliary must be too:
on can refer to a person or people whose identity is not really known:
A construction with on can often be used where a passive is used in English:
(For the passive see Chapter 8.6.)
on can sometimes be used where English uses ‘you’ and French could use vous or tu:
on can often be used as a synonym for nous:
The use of on instead of nous is very frequent in informal spoken French:
NB: When on refers to more than one person, many writers make any adjective or past participle which should indicate agreement show plural agreement. Not all native speakers agree with this. Teachers, for instance, require the mas culine singular agreement to be observed.
A frequent use of on in spoken French combines it with a phrase introduced by avec to express the meaning ‘Somebody and I did something’ or ‘We, together with somebody else, did something’:
While the meaning of on in this use is unspecified for number, the verb is always third person singular. This usage is slightly more colloquial than the same structure used with nous (see 3.3.5 (b)).
l’on is sometimes used in French for on when it follows a word ending in a vowel (like et, ou, qui, que, si, etc). This is a feature of written, rather than spoken, French:
The use of l’ is not obligatory, however.
When ce, cela and ça are used as neutral pronouns they normally refer to events, actions, states or general classes of people or things:
NB: il cannot usually be used to refer to events, actions, states or general classes.
While ce is normally used with être (see also 3.1.23), cela and ça are used with other verbs:
cela tends to be used in written French, or for emphasizing the subject in spoken French; ça is widely used as the unstressed subject in the spoken lan guage.
Written French:
Spoken French:
il/ils and elle/elles refer to people and things (both concrete and abstract). ce, cela, ça refer to events, actions, states or general classes of phenomena. Compare:
In informal spoken French many speakers use ça where il/ils, elle/elles are used in more formal spoken and written French:
NB: Because this usage is regarded as a feature of informal spoken French, the foreign learner should avoid using it in the written language.
The clearest use of impersonal subject pronouns is with verbs where il, ce, cela and ça simply mark the subject position without referring to someone or something elsewher e in the conversation or text:
| Il pleut | It's raining |
| Il neige | It's snowing |
| Il fait du vent | It's windy |
In these cases il, ce, cela, ça express very little meaning (indeed, in some lan guages impersonal constructions are characterized by the absence of a subject, for example Spanish Llueve ‘(it) is raining’). This impersonal use of il, ce, cela, ça in French corresponds to the impersonal use of ‘it’, and sometimes ‘there’ in English.
Some impersonal verbs and verbal expressions always take impersonal subject il (and NOT ce, cela or ça):
Expressions of clock time do:
| Quelle heure est-il? | Il est 6 heures |
| What time is it? | It's 6 o'clock |
As do the related time expressions:
| Il est temps de, que . . . | It's time to, that . . . |
| Il est tard | It's late |
Certain frequently occurring constructions also take impersonal il:
NB: Il s’agit de is a frequently-used impersonal construction which learners often misuse because one way of translating it into English is as ‘X is about Y’, e.g. Il s’agit dans ce roman d’une jeune fille ‘This novel is about a girl’. Il s’agit de can never have a personal subject, however:
By contrast, the verb agir ‘to act’ must have a personal subject:
(For impersonal verbs see also Chapter 8.8.)
Some impersonal verbs and verbal expressions have il as subject in written French, but il or ça may occur in spoken French; ça is used in informal styles.
Some weather verbs behave in this way:
| Il pleut, ça pleut | It's raining |
| Il neige, ça neige | It's snowing |
| Il gèle, ça gèle | It's freezing |
| Il bruine, ça bruine | It's drizzling |
Constructions not listed under 3.1.18 also behave in this way:
Some impersonal verbs allow both il (or ça in informal spoken French) and a clause or infinitive as a subject:
Others:
Verbs of this type which have direct objects, as opposed to indirect objects introduced by à, always take the impersonal subject cela (or ça in informal spoken French) and NOT il:
| Cela/ça attriste Antoine de/que . . . | . . . saddens . . . |
| Cela/ça effraye Véronique de/que . . . | . . . frightens . . . |
| Cela/ça énerve Joël de/que . . . | . . . annoys . . . |
| Cela/ça épuise Fabien de/que . . . | . . . exhausts . . . |
| Cela/ça étonne Jérôme de/que . . . | . . . astonishes . . . |
| Cela/ça fatigue Charlotte de/que . . . | . . . tires . . . |
| Cela/ça gêne Violette de/que . . . | . . . embarrasses . . . |
| Cela/ça inquiète Maud de/que . . . | . . . worries . . . |
| Cela/ça intéresse Rachel de/que . . . | . . . interests . . . |
| Cela/ça irrite Sophie de/que . . . | . . . irritates . . . |
A handful of common verbs alternate between an impersonal construction with il (or ça in informal spoken French) and a personal construction with a noun phrase subject:
il est versus c’est with reference to professions, nationality or social status
There are two ways of indicating a person’s profession, nationality or social status: il/ils and elle/elles are used with the verbs être, devenir, rester and a noun without an article:
| Il est médecin | He is a doctor |
| Elle est devenue professeur(e) | She became a teacher |
| Elles sont avocates | They are lawyers |
| Elle est toujours restée femme au foyer | She always was a housewife |
ce is used when the noun is preceded by a determiner (un, une, le, la, etc.):
| C'est un Russe | He's a Russian |
| C'est un avocat | He's a lawyer |
When the noun is modified, a determiner is required and therefore ce (not il/elle) must be used:
| C'est un médecin connu | He's a famous doctor |
| C'est un boxeur professionnel | He's a professional boxer |
| C'est une avocate qui connaît le droit anglais | She's a lawyer who knows English law |
| C'est un professeur de Toulouse | He's a teacher from Toulouse |
il est versus c’est in more general contexts
When être is followed by anything other than an adjective, ce is the pronoun to use, NOT il:
| C'est un plaisir | (NOT *il est un plaisir) |
| It's a pleasure | |
| C'est Marie | (NOT *il, *elle est Marie) |
| It's Marie | |
| C'était en été | (NOT *il était en été) |
| It was in summer |
il est versus c’est when être is followed by an adjective alone
When être is followed by an adjective alone, both il and ce are possible but there is a difference in meaning. In these examples, il is personal but ce is impersonal or neutral:
| Il est stupide | will normally mean | He is stupid |
| C'est stupide | will normally mean | That's silly |
| Il est curieux | will normally mean | He's inquisitive |
| C'est curieux | will normally mean | That's odd |
| Il est incroyable | will normally mean | He's amazing |
| C'est incroyable | will normally mean | That's unbelievable |
il est versus c’est when être is followed by adjective + clause or infinitive
When être is followed by an adjective which is itself followed by a clause or infinitive, both il and ce are possible and both are then used in an impersonal sense:
Some grammars will sometimes claim that il est is the only form to use in these constructions, but c’est is widely used in all spoken styles of French, and is often also found in these constructions in the written language.
Other common adjectives which behave in this way are:
| agréable | fun |
| bon | good |
| commode | convenient |
| dangereux | dangerous |
| difficile | difficult |
| étrange | odd |
| évident | obvious |
| facile | easy |
| important | important |
| impossible | impossible |
| insupportable | intolerable |
| intéressant | interesting |
| inutile | useless |
| mauvais | bad |
| nécessaire | necessary |
| pénible | tiresome |
| périlleux | perilous |
| possible | possible |
| peu probable | unlikely |
| utile | useful |
| vrai | true |
NB: In the impersonal constructions illustrated above, the preposition which links the adjective to the following infinitive is always de.
(For discussion of adjective + infinitive constructions see Chapter 12.7.)
il versus ce used with être + adjective + à
In the examples immediately above, il and ce are impersonal. They are used like ‘it’ and ‘there’ in English without reference to anything else in the conversation or text: in these cases the adjective is linked to the infinitive by the preposition de. But il can also be used as a personal pronoun, and ce as a neutral pronoun in similar constructions when the preposition linking the adjec tive and the infinitive is à:
Here il, elle and ce refer to something mentioned elsewhere in the conversation or text (in this case to leur politique, ce document).
(For more on these constructions see Chapter 12.7.)
ce can be used with various compound forms of être, such as ce doit être, ce peut être, ç’a été:
When the phrase following être in this construction is plural, some grammars suggest that the verb should be in the third person plural form:
But many speakers use c’est etc. in these cases:
When first or second person plural pronouns nous or vous follow être in these constructions, the verb is always singular:
Many of the problems which learners have with pronouns are not caused by a failure to know what the pronouns are, but by a failure to recognize which pronoun French requires in a particular structure. This is especially true of indir ect object pronouns. The structure of English and French verbs, even when they have similar meanings, is not necessarily the same: in a given sentence it is essential to know whether the object is direct or indirect in relation to the French verb and NOT the English verb.
Thus, in the English sentence ‘They advised Stéphane to leave’, ‘Stéphane’ is the direct object of ‘advised’, and with a pronoun the sentence becomes ‘They advised him to leave’. But in the French equivalent – Ils ont conseillé à Stéphane de partir – Stéphane is the indirect object of conseiller. With a pronoun the French sentence becomes:
For a full list of verbs which behave differently with respect to objects in English and French see Chapter 8.
TABLE 3.C Summary table of object pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural | ||
| First person | ||||
| Direct and indirect | me | (to) me | nous | (to) us |
| Second person | (to) you plural or polite | |||
| Direct and indirect | te | (to) you | vous | |
| Third person | ||||
| Direct | ||||
| masculine | le | him, it | les | them |
| feminine | la | her, it | les | them |
| neutral | le | it | — | |
| Indirect | ||||
| masculine | lui | to him, to it | leur | to them |
| feminine | lui | to her, to it | leur | to them |
| Direct and indirect | ||||
| reflexive, reciprocal, benefactive | se | (to) oneself | se | (to) themselves |
TABLE 3.D y and en
| Pronoun | Stands in the place of |
| y | a phrase introduced by à, en, dans, sur e.g. à Paris, en ville, dans sa chambre |
| en | a phrase which begins with de e.g. de son idée |
The following common French verbs take indirect object pronouns; learners often treat them as if they required direct object pronouns, perhaps because their English equivalents take direct objects:
There are several verb constructions which tend to give rise to this problem, each slightly different.
Verbs followed by: . . . à quelqu’un:
| . . . lui a téléphoné | . . . phoned him |
| . . . lui a survécu | . . . outlived her |
| . . . lui a (dés)obéi | . . . (dis)obeyed her |
| . . . lui a nui | . . . disadvantaged him |
| . . . lui ressemble | . . . looks like him |
Verbs followed by: . . . quelque chose à quelqu’un:
| . . . lui a passé le sel | . . . passed her the salt |
| . . . lui a permis du repos | . . . allowed him some rest |
| . . . lui a promis une lettre | . . . promised her a letter |
| . . . lui a reproché son attitude | . . . criticized her attitude |
| . . . lui a enseigné le chant | . . . taught him to sing |
| . . . lui a donné un cadeau | . . . gave her a present |
| . . . lui a envoyé un email | . . . sent her an email |
| . . . lui a offert un whisky | . . . offered her a whisky |
Verbs followed by: . . . à quelqu’un de faire quelque chose:
| . . . lui a ordonné de signer | . . . ordered him to sign |
| . . . lui a dit de se taire | . . . told him to shut up |
| . . . lui a demandé de partir | . . . asked him to leave |
| . . . lui a permis de l'acheter | . . . allowed her to buy it |
The following common French verbs take direct objects; learners often treat them as if they required indirect objects, perhaps because of a confusion over the status of à (or sometimes de) which these verbs require when they are fol lowed by an infinitive:
Others:
| . . . l'a contraint à rester | . . . forced him to stay |
| . . . l'a dissuadée | . . . dissuaded her |
| . . . l'a empêché de courir | . . . stopped him from running |
| . . . l'a forcée à rester | . . . forced her to stay |
| . . . l'a invité à dîner | . . . invited him to dinner |
| . . . l'a menacée | . . . threatened her |
| . . . l'a obligé à parler | . . . forced him to talk |
| . . . l'a remerciée | . . . thanked her |
Direct and indirect object pronouns are closely linked with the verb to which they are most closely related in declarative, negative and interrogative sentences.
When the verb is a main verb they appear immediately before it:
| L'Etat me paie | The state pays me |
| Les gens ne me remarquent pas | People don't notice me |
| Elle le croit | She believes it |
| A son âge, vous ne la referez pas | You won't change her, at her age |
| Il lui a soufflé quelques mots | He whispered a few words to her |
| Tu me donnes une idée | You've given me an idea |
| Ça leur apprendra à mentir | That will teach them to lie |
When the verb is accompanied by the auxiliary verbs avoir or être, direct and indirect object pronouns appear immediately before the auxiliary:
| Il m'a vu | He saw me |
| M'a-t-il vu? | Did he see me? |
| Vous ne les avez pas goûtés? | Didn't you taste them? |
| Il lui avait proposé un voyage | He had suggested a trip to her |
| Je vous suis très reconnaissant | I am very grateful to you |
NB: The past participle agrees with a preceding direct object in these cases, but not with the indirect object.
(For the agreement of the past participle see Chapter 9.2 and 9.3.)
Note also that pronouns ending in -e (me, te, se, le) and -a (la) are shortened to the consonant alone before verbs beginning with a vowel: elle m’aide, je t’ai déjà remercié, je te l’ai dit, etc.
When the verb governing a direct or indirect object pronoun is an infinitive (including a compound infinitive made up of an auxiliary verb and a past participle), direct and indirect objects usually come in front of the infinitive:
NB: When à or de followed by le or les come before the infinitive, these forms do NOT combine to form au, du, aux, des: Je suis obligé de les aider.
Where the infinitive has faire, laisser, envoyer or perception verbs like voir, regarder, entendre, sentir in front of it, direct and indirect object pronouns appear before this other verb if they are understood as the subject of the infinitive:
Note that the understood subject of the infinitive is realized as an indirect object if the infinitive has a direct object, but as a direct object if it does not. Compare:
If the direct or indirect object is understood as the object of the infinitive, it normally also comes before the other verb (although some native speakers may allow it to be placed directly in front of the infinitive):
For the ordering of more than one pronoun with these constructions, see 3.2.32.
In affirmative imperatives direct and indirect object pronouns come immediately after the verb which governs them, and the pronouns me, te become the stressed forms moi, toi:
| Prends-les! | Take them! |
| Suivez-nous! | Follow us! |
| Arrêtez-les! | Stop them! |
| Ecoutez-moi! | Listen to me! |
| Tais-toi! | Shut up! |
BUT in negative imperatives direct and indirect object pronouns precede the verb:
| Ne les suivez pas! | Don't follow them! |
| Ne la mange pas! | Don't eat it! |
| Ne me fais pas rire! | Don't make me laugh! |
(See also Chapter 11.5 on imperatives.)
Direct object pronouns may appear before voici and voilà:
| Nous voici | Here we are |
| Les voilà | There they are |
Because the indirect object pronouns lui, leur can refer both to masculine and to feminine nouns they are inherently ambiguous:
This ambiguity can be resolved if one wishes, however, by copying the pronoun with a stressed pronoun and a preposition:
le, in addition to its function as a third person singular pronoun referring to masculine nouns, may also have a ‘neutral’ function when it refers to states, general ideas or whole propositions:
In this usage neutral le is the object counterpart of the neutral subjects ce, cela, ça (see 3.1.15).
Sometimes neutral le is required in French where English normally has no object pronoun at all, typically where the verb être + adjective/identifying expression are involved:
The English constructions ‘find it difficult to’, ‘consider it easy to’, ‘reckon it possible that’, and similar cases, have French counterparts in which le must not appear. The verbs usually involved are croire, penser, trouver, juger, estimer, considérer:
The le is absent in these cases because the construction is impersonal, and, while English requires ‘it’, French requires an absence of pronoun. Where the constr uction is personal (that is, where a person or thing is referred to), le, la, or les are required:
(For more on this construction see Chapter 12.7.)
Neutral le is optional in the following environments:
(a) With the verbs croire, penser, dire, vouloir, savoir when these are used as stock conversational responses to questions or statements by other people:
(b) In the second clause of a comparison (where the particle ne is also optional). The use of ne and le is typical of formal written French:
Where me, te, se, nous, vous refer to the subject of the verb to which they are attached, they are being used reflexively. This use can correspond to English ‘my-, your-, him-, her-, it-, oneself; our-, your-, themselves’:
(See also Chapter 8.7.1.)
When the subject is third person plural, se may also be interpreted as a ‘reciprocal’ pronoun, corresponding to English ‘each other’. In some cases se is there fore ambiguous, having a ‘reflexive’ or ‘reciprocal’ interpretation, and the meaning may depend on the context:
is most likely to be:
(See also Chapter 8.7.5.)
me, te, se, nous, vous may also be used to indicate that the subject ‘benefits’ from some action. This use, known as the ‘benefactive’, can often be paraphrased in English by ‘for him-, her-, it-, oneself/themselves, etc.’:
se may be used with a verb as an alternative to an English passive:
This usage is restricted to special circumstances. The sentence must describe a state of affairs and not an action and the verb must not suggest through its tense that the action takes place in a limited time span.
(See also Chapter 8.7.6.)
me, te, se, nous, vous also normally accompany some verbs without any detectable reflexive, reciprocal or benefactive meaning:
(For a list of common pronominal verbs in which se has no detectable reflexive, reciprocal or benefactive meaning, see Chapter 8.7.3.)
The reflexive and benefactive interpretations of me, te, se, nous, vous can be emphasized by the addition of one of the expressions moi-même, toi-même, lui-même, elle-même, soi-même, eux-mêmes, elles-mêmes, etc.:
The reciprocal interpretation of se can be made explicit by the addition of one of the phrases l’un(e) l’autre, l’un(e) à l’autre, les un(e)s les autres, les un(e)s aux autres, all with the meaning ‘each other’, ‘one another’.
l’un(e) l’autre or l’un(e) à l’autre are used when the subject refers to just two people or things:
les un(e)s les autres and les un(e)s aux autres are used when the subject refers to more than two people or things:
A small set of verbs and adjectives in French look as if they take indirect objects because they are followed by the preposition à, but in fact they do not allow preceding me, te, se, nous, vous, lui, leur, and require stressed pronouns to follow à:
| Il pense à Jean | Il pense à lui (NOT *Il lui pense) |
| He is thinking of John | He is thinking of him |
| Il fait allusion à Marie | Il fait allusion à elle (NOT *Il lui fait allusion) |
| He is referring to Marie | He is referring to her |
| Elle aura affaire à Henri | Elle aura affaire à lui (NOT *Elle lui aura affaire) |
| She will have to deal with Henri | She will have to deal with him |
| Ce sac est à Julien | Ce sac est à lui (NOT *Ce sac lui est) |
| This bag is Julien's | This bag is his |
The explanation for this behaviour seems to be that à has two functions: as a marker of indirect objects, and as an ordinary preposition. In the above examples it is a preposition and can only be followed by stressed pronouns (see 3.3).
Other common verbs followed by à which behave similarly are:
| en appeler à | appeal to |
| faire appel à | appeal to |
| avoir recours à | have recourse to |
| recourir à | have recourse to |
| faire attention à | pay attention to |
| faire allusion à | allude to |
| s’habituer à | get used to |
| revenir à | come back to |
| rêver à | dream of |
| songer à | think of |
| tenir à | be fond of |
| venir à | come to |
The set of verbs which behave in this way is quite small. We have listed most of them here.
When the phrase introduced by à in these cases refers to things, rather than people, pre-verbal y may replace it. (See 3.2.21 and 3.2.23.)
Verbs like these can be made reflexive or reciprocal by adding the appropriate forms lui(-même), elle(-même), etc., or l’un l’autre, etc.:
The indirect object pronouns are used in a possessive construction in French with ‘body parts’ where English would use possessive determiners (like ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’, etc.):
However, the indirect object construction is not possible with verbs which do not describe actions:
| BUT NOT: | RATHER: |
| *Elle lui aime le visage | Elle aime son visage |
| She likes his face |
This construction is also normally impossible with non-body-parts. However, it can be found in some regional varieties of French:
(See also Chapter 2.2.8 and 8.7.2.)
y usually plays the same role in sentences as phrases which follow the verb and are introduced by prepositions like à, en, dans, sur, sous, etc.:
| Je vais à Paris demain | J'y vais demain |
| I am going to Paris tomortr | I'm going there tomortr |
| Elle vit dans une grande maison | Elle y vit |
| She lives in a large house | She lives there |
| Il a écrit son nom sur le cahier | Il y a écrit son nom |
| He wrote his name on the book | He wrote his name there |
Although y can generally replace any phrase of this type, both concrete and abstract (as in the examples below), it is usually restricted to non-animate entities:
In a number of common constructions, y is used without a very specific meaning being attached to it:
| Pensez-y! | Think about it! |
| Je n'y suis pour rien | It's nothing to do with me |
| J'y suis, j'y reste | Here I am and here I stay |
| Il y a . . . | There is . . . there are . . . |
y is normally used to refer to non-human objects which occur with verbs like penser à where à does not introduce an indirect object (see 3.2.19):
| Je pense à la guerre | I'm thinking of the war |
| J'y pense | I'm thinking of it |
| Je tiens à mes idées | I'm sticking to my ideas |
| J'y tiens | I'm sticking to them |
| Je ferai très attention à vos affaires | I'll look after your belongings very carefully |
| J'y ferai très attention | I'll look after them carefully |
y can also be found on rare occasions referring to people with such verbs: J’y pense ‘I’m thinking of him’.
en is the pronoun used to replace phrases introduced by de which follow the verb. Where these include a noun, en can refer to both human and non-human nouns:
| Il a déjà parlé de son idée | Il en a déjà parlé |
| He has already spoken about his idea | He has already spoken about it |
| Il a empêché Jean-Pierre de travailler | Il l'en a empêché |
| He stopped Jean-Pierre working | He stopped him doing it |
| Mémère s'occupe des enfants | Mémère s'en occupe |
| Grandma is looking after the children | Grandma is looking after them |
| Christine est fière de son frère | Christine en est fière |
| Christine is proud of her brother | Christine is proud of him |
In spoken French, where people are referred to, it is quite likely that a stressed pronoun following de will be used instead (see 3.3.3):
NB: An exception to the generalization that en can replace phrases introduced by de is those verbs, such as permettre, défendre and interdire, with a construction using . . . à quelqu’un de faire quelque chose. The infinitive clause is treated as a direct object:
It is important to use en when numerals (deux, trois, une dizaine, une douzaine, etc.) and quantifiers (beaucoup, trop, la plupart, etc.) are on their own after a verb. In English a pronoun is normally absent in these cases, but in French en is obligatory:
| Il a déjà parlé de son idée | Il en a déjà parlé |
| He has already spoken about his idea | He has already spoken about it |
| Il a empêché Jean-Pierre de travailler | Il l'en a empêché |
| He stopped Jean-Pierre working | He stopped him doing it |
| Mémère s'occupe des enfants | Mémère s'en occupe |
| Grandma is looking after the children | Grandma is looking after them |
| Christine est fière de son frère | Christine en est fière |
| Christine is proud of her brother | Christine is proud of him |
Note that quelques ‘some, a few’ belongs to this group, but when en is present quelques becomes quelques-un(e)s:
On en voyait quelques-unes au loin
(See also Chapter 6.9.2.)
There is a small set of verbs in French which involve y or en as an integral part of their structure without any detectable specific meaning. Common examples are:
| il y a . . . | there is/are . . . | Il y avait trois hommes |
| s'en aller | go away | Yvette s'en va |
| en imposer | impress | Elle en impose |
| s'en prendre à | lay into | Il s'en est pris à Jacques |
| en revenir | get over | Je n'en reviens pas |
| s'en tenir à | stick to | Tenez-vous-en aux faits |
| en vouloir à | hold a grudge | Je lui en veux |
| en voilà un | there's someone | En voilà un qui m'énerve |
| c'en est fait | that's the end of | C'en est fait de nos espoirs |
| en découdre | to get into a fight | Il est toujours prêt à en découdre |
| en être à | to be at, get to | Où en-sommes-nous? |
When y and en appear with negative infinitives, they normally appear directly adjacent to the infinitive, just as all other object pronouns do:
Cases where y and en ‘split’ the negative are regarded as archaic:
The foreign learner of French should remember that the use of y and en is deter mined by the presence of à or de in the French verb phrase, and should not be misled by an English equivalent which does not have a preposition, e.g.:
But see the note to 3.2.24.
When two (and more rarely three) unstressed object pronouns appear before a verb, their order usually follows the pattern indicated in Table 3.E (known by generations of British schoolchildren as the ‘soccer team’ of pronouns with a ball (en), a goalkeeper (y), two full-backs (lui, leur), three midfield players (le, la, les) and five strikers (me, te, se, nous, vous):
TABLE 3.E The order of unstressed object pronouns
| POSITION | ||||
| First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
| me | ||||
| te | le | |||
| se | la | lui | y | en |
| nous | les | leur | ||
| vous | ||||
Examples:
More rarely three pronouns may occur in combination where the first is a benefactive (i.e. indicates that the action described by the verb is ‘for the benefit’ of the person in question), although this benefactive use is regarded as colloquial:
In formal French the benefactive interpretation would be expressed through other means:
Although Table 3.E describes in general the possible sequences of unstressed object pronouns, there are some restrictions on possible combinations. No pro noun from the first column (me, te, se, nous, vous) can normally appear in combination with a pr onoun from the third column (lui, leur):
| Whilst: | Je vous présenterai Eve-Marie |
| I will introduce Eve-Marie to you | |
| can, with two pronouns, become: | Je vous la présenterai |
| I will introduce her to you | |
| the sentence | Je vous présenterai à Eve-Marie |
| I will introduce you to Eve-Marie | |
| cannot become | *Je vous lui présenterai |
| I will introduce you to her | |
| Instead, you would use: | Je vous présenterai à elle |
| Whilst: | Je vous recommande Jean-Paul |
| I recommend Jean-Paul to you | |
| can, with two pronouns, become: | Je vous le recommande |
| I recommend him to you | |
| the sentence | Je vous recommande à Jean-Paul |
| I recommend you to Jean-Paul | |
| cannot become | *Je vous lui recommande |
| I will recommend you to him | |
| Instead, you would use: | Je vous recommande à lui |
Nor can any pronouns from within the same column appear together:
cannot become:
BUT ONLY:
When two pronouns follow the verb in affirmative imperatives the ordering of pronouns is slightly different in that pronouns from the first column (me, te, se, nous, vous) follow pronouns from the second column (le, la, les). The other orders remain the same. Pronouns after imperatives are linked to the verb that governs them by hyphens:
| Donne-le-moi | (NOT *Donne-moi-le) |
| Give it to me | |
| Passez-les-nous | (NOT *Passez-nous-les) |
| Pass them over to us | |
| Nettoyez-la-moi | (NOT *Nettoyez-moi-la) |
| Clean it for me |
NB: Donne-moi-le, Passez-nous-les, etc., are often heard in informal spoken French. The foreign learner should avoid them, however.
BUT:
The pronouns me, te become moi, toi in affirmative imperatives when they are the last pronoun in the sequence, but become m’, t’ before y or en:
| Donne-le-moi | Give it to me |
| Donne-m'en | Give me some |
In these cases in informal spoken French it is not unusual to hear moi, toi retained with a linking -z-, but the learner should avoid this usage:
| Parlez-moi-z-en | Talk to me about it |
| Accroche-toi-z-y | Hang on to it |
In negative imperatives pronouns precede the verb, and the order of multiple pronouns is as indicated in the table:
| Ne me le donne pas | Don't give it to me |
| Ne me les nettoyez jamais! | Don't you ever clean them for me! (i.e. I forbid you to . . .) |
When the verbs faire, laisser, envoyer, and perception verbs like voir, entendre, regarder, sentir are followed by an infinitive, there are different ways of placing two pronouns depending on which verb is being used.
If the verb is faire, both the pronouns come before faire (or avoir if faire is in a compound tense):
| Je les lui ferai manger | Je les lui ai fait manger |
| I shall make him eat them | I made him eat them |
If the verb is laisser, envoyer or one of the perception verbs, there are the two possibilities illustrated below:
| Tu les lui laisses lire? | Tu la laisses les lire? |
| Will you let her read them? | Will you let her read them? |
| Je le leur ai entendu dire | Je les ai entendus le dire |
| I heard them say so | I heard them say so |
| Elle me l’envoya chercher | Elle m’envoya le chercher |
| She sent me to fetch it or | She sent me to fetch it |
| She had it fetched for me |
(For the structure of sentences involving faire, laisser, envoyer and perception verbs, see Chapter 12.3.8 and 12.3.9.)
After devoir, pouvoir (modal verbs) followed by an infinitive, object pronouns come before the infinitive:
When clauses containing unstressed object pronouns are coordinated by et or ou, it is normally necessary to repeat the pronoun in the second clause:
However, where the two pronouns are identical in form and attached to an auxiliary (avoir or être), the second pronoun and auxiliary may be deleted together:
The pronouns must be identical, however, and both the pronoun and the aux iliary must be deleted together. Hence the following are impossible:
| NOT | *Je les ai préconisés et ai proposés |
| NOT | *Cela m'agace et ennuie |
| NOT | *Elle l'a aidé et donné de l'argent |
In this last example it is not so much that the pronouns have different functions (le being a direct object and lui an indirect object), as that they differ in their surface forms. In the following example the first me is a direct object and the second me an indirect object, but the second me can be deleted with the auxiliary because the two me’s are identical in surface form:
TABLE 3.F Summary table of stressed pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural | ||
| First person | moi | me | nous | us |
| Second person | toi | you | vous | you (plural or polite) |
| Third person | ||||
| masculine | lui | him | eux | them |
| feminine | elle | her | elles | them |
| neutral | cela, ça | that | ||
| non-specific | soi | oneself | ||
To highlight or emphasize a pronoun a common strategy is to ‘double up’ by the addition of a stressed pronoun. This can be done with:
The stressed subject pronoun copy may equally appear at the end of the clause with the same effect:
When third person subject pronouns are highlighted or emphasized, the stressed pronoun alone may, on occasions, be used:
This is not possible with first and second person pronouns:
Only stressed pronouns and not unstressed subject pronouns can be separated from the tense-marked verb by adverbs or par enthetical expressions:
(For stressed pronouns introduced by c’est/ce sont, sometimes followed by relative clauses, see Chapter 9.1.6.)
A common strategy is to add a second, stressed pronoun at either the beginning or the end of the clause:
When the unstressed pronoun is an indirect object, the stressed pronoun being used to highlight it is preceded by à only when it is at the end of the clause:
This ‘doubling’ of an unstressed pronoun by a stressed pronoun is also used to disambiguate ambiguous pronouns. In the following sentence leur is ambigu ous between a masculine and a feminine interpretation:
But it can be disambiguated by the addition of stressed pronouns:
Stressed pronouns are normally used where the pronoun stands alone, or is in a phrase without a verb:
| Qui est là? | Moi (NOT *je) |
| Qui tu as vu? | Lui (NOT *il) |
| C'est elle qui t'aidera, pas moi | |
| (NOT *pas je) |
Stressed pronouns are the forms to use after all prepositions other than à (but see 3.2.19):
| Je suis venu malgré lui | I came in spite of him |
| J'ai agi comme elle | I acted as she did |
| Ne le dites pas devant eux | Don't say it in front of them |
| Elle s'est assise à côté de moi | She sat down next to me |
| Je n'ai rien contre elles | I have nothing against them |
Phrases introduced by de are normally pronominalized using en, but, when humans are referred to, de followed by a stressed pronoun is more usual:
Stressed pronouns are used in conjunction with the forms: même, aussi, seul, autres, tous and numerals (deux, trois, etc.):
NB: Some adjectives, such as fier ‘proud’, fidèle ‘faithful’, sûr ‘sure’ are followed by a stressed pronoun alone, and not by moi-même, lui-même, elles-mêmes, etc., when used reflexively:
Only stressed pronouns can be coordinated with each other or with other nouns by et, ou:
NB: The form the verb takes with coordinated subjects involving stressed pronouns is determined in the following way:
(See also Chapter 9.1.1.)
A frequent way of expressing the notion ‘somebody and I did X’ is:
Stressed pronouns are used with the expressions ne . . . que, and ni . . . ni . . . ne:
soi is a non-specific str essed pronoun which is normally used either when it refers to nonspecific persons or things, or indefinite phrases like on, chacun, nul, aucun, personne, tout le monde. It tends to be used after prepositions, with -même, and after ne . . . que:
TABLE 3.G Summary table of demonstrative pronouns
| Proximate | Non-proximate | ||
| masc | celui | celui-ci | celui-là |
| sing | the one | this one; the latter | that one; the former |
| fem | celle | celle-ci | celle-là |
| sing | the one | this one; the latter | that one; the former |
| masc | ceux | ceux-ci | ceux-là |
| plur | the ones | these ones; the latter | those ones; the former |
| fem | celles | celles-ci | celles-là |
| plur | the ones | these ones; the latter | those ones; the former |
Demonstrative pronouns are used where English uses ‘the one’. They agree in gender with the noun they refer to:
Demonstrative pronouns are used particularly frequently to ‘head’ relative clauses (see Chapter 15.1):
(For ce qui, ce que, ce dont, etc., see Chapter 15.9.)
The forms celui-ci/celle-ci/ceux-ci/celles-ci and celui-là/celle-là/ceux-là/celles-là translate English ‘this one/these ones’ and ‘that one/those ones’ respectively. These distinctions are mainly used in formal French:
NB: The pronouns with -ci can also mean 'the latter', and those with -là 'the former';
TABLE 3.H Summary table of possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns agree in gender and number with a noun mentioned or implied elsewhere in the discourse:
N.B.: les siens also has the special meaning of ‘one’s family’: On travaille pour les siens ‘People work for their families’.
les nôtres can mean ‘with us’, as in: Elle n’était pas des nôtres ‘She wasn’t with us’.