18.6 Direct and Indirect Pronouns Language Lesson

18.6 Direct and Indirect Pronouns
Language & Culture Lessons
Welcome to the third lesson on pronouns. Oh dear, it sounds a bit boring doesn’t it?! Well the unfortunate fact is that
sometimes when you want to know something inside and out - like you want to know the French language - you have to
learn everything about it, even the not-so-fun bits. The great news is that just by completing these lessons; you’re
increasing your skill level so much! One day you’ll look back on these pronoun lessons with fondness …really!
In the last lesson, we talked about direct and indirect verbs. Well, a direct verb will use a direct pronoun. Guess what an
indirect verb will use for a pronoun? Yes, good guess! And the good news is: they are nearly the same!
Language Lesson
Pronouns: « Troisième partie » Part Three
Direct or Indirect?
As we said before, direct verbs use direct pronouns, and indirect verbs use indirect pronouns. The pronouns are
nearly the same for both, there are just a few minor differences that you’ll be able to spot in the table below:
Subject
Direct Pronouns
Indirect Pronouns
Je
me
me
Tu
te
te
Il
le / l’
lui
Elle
la / l’
lui
Nous
nous
nous
Vous
vous
vous
Elles
les
leur
Ils
les
leur
You can see they are the same except for to him/her/them.
Je lui parle
I speak to her/him
Elle nous donne
She gives us
Elle les veut
She wants them
Elle la veut
She wants it (it being a feminine thing)
Elle le veut
She wants it (it being a masculine thing)
The difficulty comes from the fact that sometimes a verb is direct in one language and not in the other. Let’s take
« téléphoner » for instance.
'I am phoning them' is direct in English.
« Je leur téléphone » is indirect because in French « téléphoner à » is the verb 'to telephone'.
In many cases though, it is the same:
Je lui parle. I am talking to him.
Between a Subject and a Verb
Pronouns are ALWAYS placed between the subject (Je, Paul, les enfants, mon père et moi…) and the verb:
Je leur dis « bonjour »
I say “hello” to them
Paul me parle
Paul is talking to me
Les enfants le savent
The children know about it
Mon père et moi les connaissons
My father and I know them.
And this is true for all simple tenses, like present, imperfect, future, and conditional.
For Different Tenses…
For compound tenses like passé composé, pluperfect, past conditional; this is what happens: the pronoun goes
between the subject and the auxiliary.
Je leur ai dit « bonjour »
I said “hello” to them
Paul m’a parlé
Paul talked to me
Les enfants l’ont su
The children knew it
Mon père et moi les avons connus
My father and I have met them
Feeling Negative?
And for the negative, we see « ne » is placed before the pronoun:
Je ne leur ai pas dit « bonjour »
I didn't say “hello” to them
Paul ne m’a pas parlé
Paul didn't talk to me
Les enfants ne l’ont pas su
The children didn't know about it
Mon père et moi ne les avons pas connus
My father and I haven't met them.
Okay, take a breather! It’s been heavy going so far. Just one more little thing you need to know:
If you wanted to say: I am giving it to them, it’s quite a challenge as you will now need 2 pronouns: one direct and one
indirect - le and leur.
So here it is: je le leur donne. How are we supposed to know that le is before leur? Well, like they say on television
(comme à la télé), à suivre… to be continued!
Culture
Le Supermarché
In the last culture bite, you learned about the French boulangerie. Now don’t get me wrong, the boulangerie holds a
special place in the heart of most French, but let me introduce « le supermarché ». I’m sure you’ve guessed that it
means supermarket. Sound un-exciting? Well to the French a supermarché is a bottomless resource from which to
create their gourmet cuisine, and besides, French supermarkets will be pretty different to the supermarket you
usually shop at!
For those living in smaller, remote villages, « l’épicier » the grocer is the place to go. As villages grow in size, they
tend to upgrade to « une supérette », a mini-market which is still local and small but with a greater variety.
The Daddy of all stores is « les hypermarchés », the hypermarkets. These are a size above « les supermarchés » and
they are like little villages themselves where you can find anything from clothes, to furniture, to food!
Whilst shopping, be mindful of the shop opening times: most shops in
France are closed during lunch hour, and in the country, the lunch hour
could be up to 2 hours long! On Sundays, you will be lucky to find anything
open! « Mon Dieu ! Comment faire sans le saucisson ? ! »
If the supermarket sells petrol, it’s always slightly cheaper than normal
stations, and substantially cheaper compared to what you can find on
motorways. Just remember to fill the car up on Saturday, as there won’t be
any cheap petrol available on Sunday.
Ah, this talk of food takes me back to France…wandering through the
cheese aisles, or dairy products « les yaourts, les crèmes, les mousses, les
lait caillés » or even better, « les charcuteries avec les pâtés, les terrines, les
mousses, les jambons de pays, les saucissons, saucisses, salamis, les confits,
les rillettes, les boudins, les andouilles, les andouillettes ».
Time to stop: c’est l’heure de diner !
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