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Pronouns in French

A pronoun is a word that stands in place of something such as 'it' or 'him'. Here is an 'official' table of the pronouns:

Subject	Direct object	Indirect object	Reflexive	Disjunctive
je /j'	me/m'	me/m'	me/m'	moi
tu	te/t'	te/t'	te/t'	toi
il	le/l'	lui	se/s'	lui
elle	la/l'	lui	se/s'	elle
nous	nous	nous	nous	nous
vous	vous	vous	vous	vous
ils	les	leur	se/s'	eux
elles	les	leur	se/s'	elles

But this does not show you the patterns in them so I have changed the order:

Subject	Direct object	Indirect object	Reflexive	Disjunctive
je /j'	me/m'	me/m'	me/m'	moi
tu	te/t'	te/t'	te/t'	toi
il	le/l'	lui	se/s'	lui
elle	la/l'	lui		elle
ils	les	leur		eux
elles	les	leur		elles
nous	nous	nous	nous	nous
vous	vous	vous	vous	vous

Just to remind you:

Pronoun	Meaning
Subject	The subject of that part of the sentence or the 'doer' of the sentence e.g. He spoke French.
Direct object	This is used when you directly mean the person or thing. The person or thing has something done to e.g. I saw him
Indirect object	This is used when you do not directly mean the person or thing, often translating 'to ...' or 'from ...' e.g. I gave it to him - here, to him is a reference to him I bought a car from her
Reflexive	This is a sort of -self use like 'sit yourself down' or 'behave yourself!'. If you see in books, words like "s'excuser" then this shows that it is reflexive - to excuse oneself. Some verbs can either be used with or without these -self words. Note that ALL reflexive verbs use être instead of avoir with that 'past participle' word e.g. Je me suis sali les mains en creusant dans le jardin = I got my hands dirty digging in the garden
Disjunctive	These are not used with verbs. They are used with other words like for, by and with e.g. C'est pour vous = It's for you

Which verb form do I use with nouns?

When you use people's names or things, I find it helpful to think which pronoun would replace the people or things to determine which verb form to use. Here are some examples:
Michel habite à trente Rue dix
can be replaced with:
Il habite à trente Rue dix - so you use the "il" form

Sylvia et Marie espèrent que tu pourras venir à la fête
Elles espèrent que tu pourras venir à la fête

Geneviève et moi écoutons des cédés
Nous écoutons des cédés

Substitutes for the disjunctive pronouns

à côté de lui→à côté = beside it
après lui→après = after it
dans lui→dedans = in it
derrière lui→derrière = behind it
sous lui→ = dessous = underneath it
sur lui→dessus = on it

Those last two remind me of:
au-dessus (adverb) = above
au-dessus de (preposition) = above
au-dessous (adverb) = underneath
au-dessous de (preposition) = Underneath
- Remember that those endings are like the difference between the pronunciation of vous and vu. Vous has an 'ooh' sound to it where vu is more of a strained with the lips, a little like "whistling an e". Since I know the difference between the words sur and sous, I can decide the difference between dessous, dessus, au-dessous and au-dessus.

qu'est-ce qu'il y a derrière? Et dessus? = What is behind it? And on it?
Or use a demonstrative pronoun:

	singular	plural
masculine	celui	ceux
feminine	celle	celles

(remember that celui can't be on it's own. It may be followed by a preposition like 'de', qui, que or by -ci / -là.)
Il n'a jamais eu une voiture comme celle-là = He has never had a car like it

Order of object pronouns - the short Ls come before the long Ls:

This applies to normal sentences and negative commands:

me / m'
te / t'
se, s'
nous
vous

le / l'
la, l'
les

lui
leur

Examples:
Je l'ai vu = I have seen him / her / it
Il le lui a donné = He has given it to him / her
il n'y en a plus = there isn't any more
On va vous conduire à eux = We are going to take you to them (a rare case where the words in the first column cannot appear with lui / leur so use à - vous etc. can mean to / from so à clarifies this)
Ne l'attendons pas = Let's not wait for him

Order of object pronouns in POSITIVE commands:

le
la
les

moi / m'
toi / t'
lui
nous
vous
leur

Remember to change 'me' and 'te' to:
moi / toi in a positive command - donnez-le-moi = give it to me
m' / t' before en - donnez-m'en = give me some
Montes-y = go up there (remember that you don't remove the 's' in the 'tu' command before y and en)

Pronouns y, en and le used to refer to something

The French (almost) always use y, en and le to refer to a thing mentioned previously. First of all, a quick reminder of what y and en are short for:

Y	y replaces: à / dans / sur + thing or things (saying that an object is located there) or it replaces là so it can mean at / to / in it /in them / there but it is simpler than that. Basically, if a verb or something uses à + noun (or dans / sur), you can use 'y'. As many verbs use à then you can use 'y' with it
En	en replaces: de + a thing or things so it can mean of / with / from it / from them of it them + quantity de + persons (quantity) some, any but it is simpler than that. Basically, if a verb or something uses de + noun, you can use en

Y

Je vais y aller = je vais aller là
Je ne m'y intéresse pas du tout = I am not in the least interested in it
(s'intéresser à something / someone) - the 'y' here replaces the 'in it' part

En

J'en ai besoin = I have need of it - here en replaces de + thing, referring to something metioned earlier.
note it can mean a part of something, like the word some:
J'en voudrais = I would like some (of it)

Of it, of them + expression of quantity:
combien de sœurs avez-vous? - j'en ai deux = how many sisters have you? - I've got two (of them)

Le

This is also used to refer to something but that something may not be physical, like an idea:
Pouvez-vous vous rappeler cette chanson? Oui, je le rappelle= Can you remember this song? Yes, I remember (it)
but using 'le' is optional with savoir when you say a simple responce e.g. oui, je (le) sais = yes, I know

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[FRANÇAIS]

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