Table of Contents
Exercises
Introduction
Combined scoring system
The negative form
Examples
- J’obéis à mon patron: I obey my boss.
- Je lui obéis*: I obey him.
| *The indirect object pronoun will always be placed before the conjugated verb. |
- Ils répondent à leurs amis: They respond to their friends.
- Ils leur répondent: They respond to them.
- Elle appartient à sa mère: She belongs to her mother:
- Elle lui appartient*: She belongs to her.
| *We will use “lui” for female as well as male personal pronouns. |
- Il appartient à ses parents: He belongs to his parents.
- Il leur appartient: He belongs to them.
- J’obéis à ma mère: I obey my mother.
- Je lui obéis: I obey her.
- Il obéit à ses parents: He obey his parents.
- Il leur obéit: He obey them.
- Elle répond à son collègue: She answers her colleague.
- Elle lui répond: She answers him.
- Il répond à ses collégues: He answers his colleagues.
- Il leur répond: He answers them.
- Elles écrivent à leur petit frère: They write to their little brother.
- Elles lui écrivent: They write to him.
- Ils téléphonent à leur patron: They phone their boss.
- Ils lui téléphonent: They call him.
- Elles ressemblent à leur grand-mère: They look like their grandmother.
- Elles lui ressemblent: They look like her.
- Il ressemble à son grand-père: He looks like his grandfather.
- Il lui ressemble: He looks like him.
- Je donne une voiture à mon ami: I give a car to my friend.
- Je lui donne une voiture: I give him a car.
- Elle donne une voiture à ses amis: She gives a car to her friends.
- Elle leur donne une voiture: She gives them a car.
- Je demande à mes élèves de faire attention: I ask my pupils to be careful.
- Je leur demande de faire attention: I ask them to be careful.
In the past tense
- J’ai rendu visite à mon frère: I visited my brother.
- Je lui ai rendu visite: I paid him a visit.
| We will place the pronoun directly after the personal pronoun. |
- Elle a rendu visite à ses anciens beaux-parents: She visited her former parents-in-law.
- Elle leur a rendu visite: She paid them a visit.
- J’ai donné un canapé à mon fils: I give my son a sofa.
- Je lui ai donné un canapé: I give him a sofa.
- Il a écrit un rapport à son patron: He wrote a report to his boss.
- Il lui a écrit un rapport: He wrote him a report.
- Elle a fait peur à son frère: She made her brother scared.
- EIle lui a fait peur: She made him scared.
- Ils ont fait peur à leur père: They made their father scared.
- Ils lui ont fait peur: They made him scared.
- Nous avons écrit un article à notre éditeur: We wrote an article to our editor.
- Nous lui avons écrit un article: We wrote him an article.
- Elle a écrit un article à ses éditeurs: She wrote an article to her editors.
- Elle leur a écrit un article: She wrote them an article.
Additional examples
- J’ai promis à mes enfants de faire du bon travail: I promised my kids to do a good job.
- Je leur ai promis de faire du bon travail: I promised them to do a good job.
- Elles permettent leur frère à prendre leur vélò: They allow their brother to take their bike (ride their bike).
- Elle lui permettent de prendre son vélò: They allow him to take their bike.
- Je pose une question à ma petite amie: I ask my girlfriend a question.
- Je lui pose une question: I ask her a question.
- Elles posent une question à leurs professeurs: They ask their teachers a question.
- Elles leur posent une question: They ask them a question.
Do you still find it difficult to understand? You can read my article on direct- and indirect objects, where I explain the importance of this concept in a pedagogical way.
You can also read my article on French Pronouns if you want to compare them against each other.
Negation
The negation will be placed around the verb and the pronoun.
Look at these 3 steps:
- Nous répondons à nos amis: We answer our friends
- Nous leur répondons: We answer them
- Nous ne leur répondons pas: We don’t answer them
Let’s look at 3 examples of the negation in the present tense:
- Elle lui répond: She answers him.
- Elle ne lui répond pas: She doesn’t answer him.
- Nous leur écrivons: We write to them.
- Nous ne leur écrivons pas: We don’t write to them.
- Elles lui téléphonent: They phone him.
- Elles ne lui téléphonent pas: They don’t phone him.
Let’s continue by looking at the placement of then negation in the past tense:
- Ils lui ont répondu: They answered him.
- Ils ne lui ont pas répondu: They didn’t answer him.
- Elle lui a téléphoné: She phoned him/her.
- Elle ne lui a pas téléphoné: She didn’t phone him/her.
- Je leur ai obéi: I obeyed them.
- Je ne leur ai pas obéi: I didn’t obey them.
