French direct object pronouns (Exercises)

Exercises

Introduction

Combined scoring system

In the negative form

Examples

Easy examples with one verb

The verbs in these examples are conjugated in the present tense.

• Elle mange une tarte: She is eating a pie.
• Elle la mange: She is eating it.

• Nous écoutons l’orchestre: We are listening to the orchestra.
• Nous l’écoutons: We are listening to it.

• Il attend son ami: He is waiting for his friend.
• Il l’attend: He is waiting for him.

• On voit notre frère: We are seeing our brother.
• On le voit: We are seeing him.

• Elles regardent un match de basket: They are watching a basketball game.
• Elles le regardent: They are watching it.

• Je paie le serveur: I pay the waitor.
• Je le paie: I pay him.

• Il lave sa chemise: He is washing his shirt.
• Il la lave: He is washing it.

• Elle lave sa jupe: She is washing her skirt.
• Elle la lave: She is washing it.

• Je paie la note (la facture): I pay the bill.
• Ja la paie: I pay it.

Examples with two verbs

• Nous voulons attendre notre soeur: We want to wait for our sister.
• Nous voulons l’attendre: We want to wait for her.

• Ils vont écouter leur médecin: They are going to listen to their doctor.
• Ils vont l‘écouter: They are going to listen to him.

• Nous allons attendre notre ami: We are going to wait for our friend.
• Nous allons l’attendre: We are going to wait for him.

• Je veux retrouver mon portefeuille: I want to find my wallet.
• Je veux le retrouver: I want to find it.

• Elles vont chercher leur professeur: The are going to look for their teacher.
• Elles vont le chercher: They are going to look for him.

• Je vais écouter une chanson: I am going to listen to a song.
• Je vais l’écouter: I am going to listen to it.

• Nous allons chercher notre ami: We are going to look for our friend.
• Nous allons le chercher: We are going to look for him.

The past tense

We will use the following placement of the pronoun for a verb conjugated in “le passé composé”:

• J’ai écouté une chanson: I listened to a song.
• Je l’ai écouté: I listened to it.

We will use the following placement of the pronoun for a verb conjugated in “l’imparfait”:

• Elle voulait chercher son chat: She wanted to look for her cat.
• Elle voulait le chercher: She wanted to look for it.

• Nous avons trouvé une commode dans le magasin: We found a dresser in the store.
• Nous l’avons trouvé: We found it.

• Je voulais voir mon fils: I wanted to see my son.
• Je voulais le voir: I wanted to see him.

• Elle voulait regarder la série: She wanted to watch the series.
• Elle voulat la regarder: She wanted to watch it.

• J’ai payé l’addition au restaurant: I paid the bill at the restaurant.
• Je l’ai payé: I paid it.

• Il est allé voir le match: He went to see the game.
• Il est allé le voir: He went to see it.

• Est-ce que vous avez déjà vu le match?: Have you already seen the game?
• Est-ce que vous l’avez déjà vu? Have you already seen it?

In the negative form

The negation will be placed around the conjugated verb and its pronoun.

• Elles la voient: They see her.
• Elle ne la voient pas: They don’t see her.

• Ils le cherchent: They are looking for it
• Ils ne le cherchent pas: They don’t look for it.

• Je le vois: I see him.
• Je ne le vois pas: I don’t see him.

One final example where the “e” from “le” will disappear due to the following verb beginning with a vowel “écoutent”:

• Elles l’écoutent: They listen to him.
• Elles ne l’écoutent pas: They don’t listen to him.

Conclusion

You can read my article on French Pronouns if you want to compare indirect pronouns against direct pronouns.