1.90520 · Section 1: Grammar

Pronouns: subject, object, reflexive and disjunctive

Key learnings

Four pronoun families, each with its own job
A pronoun replaces a noun. French has four families, and the right one depends on the noun's grammatical FUNCTION: subject does the action; direct object receives it directly (Je le vois); indirect object receives it via à (Je lui parle); reflexive — the subject acts on itself (Elle se lève); disjunctive after a preposition or for emphasis (C'est pour moi). me/te/nous/vous are identical across functions; the full table is in the note.
Object pronouns go BEFORE the verb
Unlike English ("I see him"), French object/reflexive pronouns sit before the verb they belong to. Simple tense: Je le vois. Perfect: before the auxiliary — Je l'ai vu. Modal + infinitive: on the infinitive — Je vais le voir. Only in a positive command does it follow the verb with a hyphen, me/te → moi/toi (Regarde-moi !). A direct-object pronoun before an avoir-perfect verb triggers participle agreement — la lettre que j'ai écrite.

Common mistakes

Drawn from real examiner reports.

Dropping the reflexive pronoun (je → il)

Reflexive verbs need both a reflexive pronoun and a conjugated verb — dropping either breaks the sentence: ✗ je entends / je s'entend → je m'entends (s' belongs to il/elle/ils, not je). First-to-third-person transforms are a trap: je me suis douché → il s'est douché, not ✗ il a douché — the pronoun (me → se) and auxiliary must change together.

Digest: je entends / je s'entend used instead of je m'entends (s23 43 Q3(b) Task 2); je me suis douché → il s'est douché failed because candidates did not recognise the verb as reflexive when transforming person (w23 22 Q4(c)).

Leaving je/me/mon in a 3rd-person answer

Reading questions are often third-person about a first-person text, so every pronoun and possessive attached to the person must change together, not just the verb: ✗ ma mère → sa mère; ✗ m'a donné → lui a donné. A lifted answer that keeps je/me/mon when the question asks "What did he do?" is marked wrong — the pronoun points to the wrong person.

Digest: Q4/Q6 require transformation not lifting — forgetting to change ma mère to sa mère recurs (s22 21 Q4(h); w22 21 Q4); m'a donné → lui a donné only managed by the strongest candidates (w23 22 Q6(h)).

Echoing vous instead of switching to je

Formal role-play cards often ask with vous: Préférez-vous le train ? Weaker candidates copy the verb form heard instead of switching the subject to je and re-conjugating: ✗ je préférais instead of je préfère. Whoever is asked answers as je; the vous is never the subject. Some also default to je throughout where ils/elles is natural.

Digest: register mismatch on formal vous role-play cards flagged every sitting (s22, w22, s23, w23); "weaker candidates default to je throughout" (s23 Speaking, echoed w23).

le/la vs lui/leur: use the à test

Choose direct (le/la/les) vs indirect (lui/leur) by whether the French verb takes à before a person. voir, regarder, aimer have no preposition → direct: je le vois. parler à, téléphoner à, donner à take à → indirect: ✗ je le parle → je lui parle; ✗ je le téléphone → je lui téléphone. English "I phone him" hides the à.

(general FL trap)

Pronoun goes before the verb, not after

French object and reflexive pronouns go before the verb, not after as in English: ✗ je vois le → je le vois; ✗ elle lave se → elle se lave. In the perfect the pronoun goes before the auxiliary (je l'ai vu); with a modal it attaches to the infinitive (je vais le voir). The only time it follows the verb is a positive command (Regarde-moi !).

(general FL trap)

leur pronoun vs leur/leurs possessive

Do not confuse leur the indirect-object pronoun (invariable: je leur parle = I speak to them) with leur/leurs the possessive adjective, which agrees with the noun owned (leur maison, leurs enfants). They are spelled alike but do different jobs: the pronoun sits before the verb and never takes -s; the possessive sits before a noun and takes -s in the plural.

(general FL trap)

Pronoun function shows at the 3rd person

Because me, te, nous, vous look identical whether direct object, indirect object or reflexive, some candidates assume pronouns never change with function — then fail to switch to lui/leur (indirect) or se (reflexive) at the 3rd person: ✗ je le parle → je lui parle; il le lève → il se lève. The 3rd person is where the function becomes visible.

Digest: "weaker candidates default to je throughout" and Reading Q4/Q6 person-transform failures (m'a donné not reliably → lui a donné, w23 22 Q6(h)) both trace to under-secure 3rd-person object/reflexive forms.

Exam tips

Name the pronoun's job before you write it
Before writing a pronoun, name its job. Find the noun it replaces: à + person → indirect (lui/leur); no preposition, action received directly → direct (le/la/les); after any other preposition, for emphasis, or in a comparison → disjunctive (moi, toi, lui, eux...).
Check gender/number; lui/leur ignore gender
Check gender/number for le/la/les — but lui/leur are invariant for gender. Before adding a reflexive pronoun, confirm the verb is pronominal (se in the dictionary) and match its person to the subject: je me, tu te, il se, nous nous, vous vous, ils se.
Place it before the verb (command excepted)
Place the pronoun before the verb — before the auxiliary in the perfect (je l'ai vu), or on the infinitive after a modal (je vais le voir). The exception is a positive command: it follows the verb with a hyphen, me/te → moi/toi (Donne-le-moi !).
Flip every pronoun when transforming person
When transforming person — Reading Q4/Q6, or a Speaking answer from vous to je — re-check EVERY pronoun and possessive in the clause, not just the verb. Subject, object and possessive flip together: je → il, me → lui, mon → son.

Revision notes