Mastering French Indirect Object Pronouns: Forms, Placement, and Usage
In this post, we’ll learn French indirect object pronouns. If you’re learning French, chances are you’ve encountered pronouns like me, te, or lui in sentences — and perhaps felt confused about where they go or what they mean. Let’s demystify French indirect object pronouns: what they are, how they’re formed, and how to use them correctly in different tenses and sentence structures.
What Are French Indirect Object Pronouns?
In French, an indirect object pronoun replaces the noun that receives the action of the verb indirectly. Noun phrase indirect objects typically begin with the preposition à (to). In the following examples, the underlined phrase is the indirect object, which are all nouns here.
- Je parle à Marie.
I’m speaking to Marie. - J’envoie beaucoup de textos à mes amis.
I send a lot of texts to my friends. I send my friends a lot of texts. - J’ai fait un cadeau à mon frère.
I gave a gift to my brother. I gave my brother a gift.
If you replace the à indirect object phrases with pronouns, you use an indirect object pronoun in French.
- Je lui parle.
I’m speaking to her. - Je leur envoie beaucoup de textos.
I send them a lot of texts. - Je lui ai fait un cadeau.
I gave him a gift.
The Forms of French Indirect Object Pronouns
Now let’s look at the form that indirect object pronouns take. Notice that they’re identical to direct object pronouns, apart from the third person forms lui and leur.
| subject pronouns | indirect object pronouns | |
| je | me / m’ | (to, for) me |
| tu | te / t’ | (to, for) you (singular) |
| il, elle | lui | (to, for) him / her/ it |
| nous | nous | (to, for) us |
| vous | vous | (to, for) you (pl/formal) |
| ils / elles | leur | (to, for) them |
Using French Indirect Object Pronouns
Now let’s see how to use French indirect object pronouns. We’ll cover a few different cases. You’ll see that in most cases, the pronoun comes before the verb, but the details depend on the construction.
Simple Tenses
The pronoun comes before the conjugated verb in simple tenses. That is, tenses formed with one word, and no auxiliary.
- Je lui écris une lettre.
I’m writing a letter to him/her. - Tu me parlais souvent.
You used to talk to me often. - Il te répondra demain.
He’ll answer you tomorrow.
Compound Tenses
The pronoun comes before the auxiliary verb avoir or être.
- Il leur a téléphoné hier.
He called them yesterday. - Elle m’a répondu tout de suite.
She answered me right away. - Je vous aurais déjà donné la réponse.
I would have already given you the answer.
Notice that unlike direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns do not trigger agreement on gender/number with the past participle: Il leur a parlé He spoke to them. (no agreement on parlé)
With an Infinitive
When there’s a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, the pronoun goes before the infinitive.
- Je vais lui écrire demain.
I’m going to write to him/her tomorrow - Nous voulons te parler.
We want to speak to you. - Elle vient de leur envoyer le texto.
She has just sent them the text message.
In Commands
In affirmative commands, the pronoun comes after the verb, attached with a hyphen. This is the one case where the French indirect object pronoun follows, rather than precedes, the verb. Just remember that me and te become moi and toi in affirmative commands.
- Parle-lui !
Speak to him/her! - Donnez-leur ce livre.
Give them this book. - Dis-moi la verité !
Tell me the truth! - Achète-toi un nouveau téléphone.
Buy yourself a new phone.
In negative commands, the pronoun comes before the verb, as usual.
- Ne me parle pas !
Don’t talk to me! - Ne leur écrivez pas.
Don’t write to them.
Pitfall Verbs
One important thing to keep in mind is that some verbs that take direct objects in English take indirect objects in French. Here are a few common examples:
- téléphoner à quelqu’un (to phone someone)
- répondre à quelqu’un (to answer someone)
- plaire à quelqu’un (to please someone, to like)
- obéir à quelqu’un (to obey someone)
- désobéir à quelqu’un (to disobey someone)
- pardonner à quelqu’un (to forgive someone)
- Je vais téléphoner à mes amis plus tard.
I’m going to phone my friends later. - Je vais leur téléphoner plus tard.
I’m going to call them later. - Tu devrais pardonner à ton frère.
You should forgive your brother. - Tu devrais lui pardonner.
You should forgive him.
There are also several common English verbs that take an indirect object in English or an object with a preposition like for or at. Some of these verbs simply take a direct object in French.
- écouter quelqu’un (to listen to someone)
- attendre quelqu’un (to wait for someone)
- chercher quelqu’un (to look for someone)
- regarder quelqu’un (to look at someone)
- Je l’écoute.
I’m listening to him/her. - Je les regarde.
I’m looking at them.
Practice
Now let’s practice French indirect object pronouns. Rephrase each sentence with an indirect object pronoun in place of the indirect object noun phrase. Translate your answers.
- Je téléphone à Paul.
- Elle donne un cadeau à ses parents.
- Nous écrivons à notre professeur.
- Tu parles souvent à tes amis.
- Ils répondent à moi.
- Vous offrez des fleurs à votre mère.
- Je prête mon livre à toi.
- Le professeur explique la leçon aux étudiants.
- Elle a écrit à sa cousine hier.
- Nous allons envoyer un message à nos cousins.
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Answers
- Je lui téléphone. (I call him.)
- Elle leur donne un cadeau. (She gives them a present.)
- Nous lui écrivons. (We write to him.)
- Tu leur parles souvent. (You speak to them often.)
- Ils me répondent. (They answer me.)
- Vous lui offrez des fleurs. (You offer her flowers.)
- Je te prête mon livre. (I’ll lend you my book.)
- Le professeur leur explique la leçon. (The teacher explains the lesson to them.)
- Elle lui a écrit hier. (She wrote to her yesterday.)
- Nous allons leur envoyer un message. (We’re going to send them a message.)
