Module 07: Les fêtes
Troisième Partie: L’hiver, la grammaire
In this section:
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Indirect Object Pronouns
Indirect Object Pronouns
Forms and Uses
An indirect object is a person which receives the action of a verb indirectly. In French, the indirect object is always preceded by the preposition à and in English by the preposition ‘to‘ :
Exemples : Gabriel offre des fleurs à Chloé. (Gabriel gives flowers to Chloé.) Remember, “offrir quelque chose à quelqu’un – you offer something TO someone.
Alain donne un cadeau à sa sœur. (Alain gives a gift to his sister.) Remember, the verb “donner” is used to give something to someone – donner quelque chose à quelqu’un.
An indirect object pronoun indicates à + a person. In the sentence ‘Gabriel offre des fleurs à Chloé‘, ‘Chloé’ is the indirect object. The indirect object pronoun that replaces ‘à Chloé’ is lui, this way, we avoid repeating Chloé.
Gabriel lui offre des fleurs. (Gabriel gives flowers to her.)
Alain lui donne un cadeau. (Alain gives a gift to her)
The following are the French indirect object pronouns:
| me (to me) | nous (to us) |
| te (to you) | vous (to you) |
| lui (to him/to her) | leur (to them) |
In front of a word starting with a vowel, me and te become m’ and t’.
| Mimi: Qu’est-ce que tu vas offrir Michel pour son anniversaire? | Mimi: What are you going to give Michel for his birthday? | |
| Martin: Je vais lui offrir dun jeu vidéo. | Martin: I’m going to give him a video game. | |
| Mimi: Anthony m‘a dit que je devrais lui donner un jeu de société! | Mimi: Anthony told me that I should give him a board game. | |
| Martin: Bonne idée! | Martin: Good idea! |
Placement
An indirect object pronoun (IOP) is placed just before the verb of which it is the object.
Exemple: Sophie, je te parle ! Sophie, I’m talking to you! The IOP is “te” and the verb is “parle” in this example.
In a composed tense (like the passé composé), the pronoun precedes the auxiliary.
Exemple: Tu lui as parlé ? Did you talk to him? Here, lui is the IOP, which goes before the auxiliary verb avoir.
In infinitive constructions, the pronoun goes immediately before the infinitive.
Exemple: Nous allons leur donner un cadeau. We are going to give them a gift
When the conjugated verb is negative, the ne precedes the object pronoun. The IOP is placed between the ne and the conjugated verb.
Exemple: Il ne m’a pas envoyé un SMS. He did not send me a text message.
Tu ne lui as pas parlé. You didn’t talk to him/her.
The IOP is sandwiched between the ne and the verb avoir in a negative sentence.
Note that, in compound tenses (such as the passé composé), there is no agreement between the past participle and the indirect object.
In the affirmative imperative (commands, advice), the indirect object pronoun is placed after the verb it is the object of and attached to it by a hyphen. In addition, me and te become moi and toi.
See examples below:
| Mimi: Qu’est-ce que tu as reçu pour ton anniversaire? | Mimi: What did you get for your birthday? | |
| Michel: Mariah m‘a donné une carte cadeaux pour Janjou! | Michel: Mariah gave me a gift card for Janjou! | |
| Mimi: Génial ! Qu’est-ce que Sophia t‘a donné? | Mimi: Cool! What did Sophia give you? | |
| Michel: Elle m‘a donné des romans. | Michel: She gave me some books. | |
| Mimi: Oh, montre-moi les romans! | Mimi: Oh, show me the books! | |
