French personal pronouns

The French personal pronouns (analogous to English "I", "me", "you", and so on) reflect the person and number of their referent, and in the case of the third person, its gender as well (much like English's distinction between "him" and "her", except that French draws this distinction among inanimate nouns as well). They also reflect the role they play in their clause: subject, direct object, indirect object, or other.

The personal pronouns display a number of grammatical particularities and complications not found in their English counterparts: some of them can only be used in certain circumstances; some of them change form depending on surrounding words; and their placement is largely unrelated to the placement of the nouns they replace.

French personal pronouns

"Le", "la", and "les" are not used when the direct object refers to the same entity as the subject; see the section on the reflexive pronouns, below.

Examples:
* (I have a book.) I'm giving "it" to the teacher. « Je "le" donne au prof. »
* (Danielle is my sister.) Have you seen "her"? « Est-ce que tu "l'"as vue? »

Indirect-object pronouns

: Indirect-object pronouns: "me", "te", "lui", "nous", "vous", "leur".

In French, an indirect object is an object of a verb that is introduced using a preposition (especially the preposition "à"). For example, in the sentence « J'ai parlé à Jean » ("I spoke to Jean"), "Jean" is the indirect object in the French sentence.

Indirect-object pronouns (or "dative pronouns") generally only replace indirect objects with the preposition "à". When an indirect object pronoun is used, it replaces the entire prepositional phrase; for example, « Je lui ai donné un livre » ("I gave him a book").

Broadly speaking, "lui" and "leur" are used to refer to people, and "y" (see "The pronoun "y" below) is used to refer to things. However, "lui" and "leur" will sometimes also be used in referring to things.

"Lui", "leur", and "y" are replaced with "se" ("s" before a vowel) when the indirect object refers to the same entity as the subject; see the section on the reflexive pronouns below.

As mentioned above, the indirect object pronouns are not always used to replace indirect objects:
* They are not used when the preposition is "de" rather than "à"; but see the section on the pronoun "en", below.
* Some verbs are incompatible with indirect object pronouns, such as "penser" ("to think about") and all reflexive verbs. For example, one says, « Je me fie à lui » ("I put my trust in him"), "not" « * Je me lui fie ».

Reflexive pronouns

: Reflexive pronouns: "me", "te", "nous", "vous", "se".

In French, as in English, reflexive pronouns are used in place of direct- and indirect-object pronouns that refer to the same entity or entities as the subject. A verb with a reflexive pronoun is called a "reflexive verb", and has many grammatical particularities aside from the choice of pronoun; see French verbs.

There are four kinds of reflexive verbs:
# Verbs that are inherently reflexive. For example, the verb "se souvenir" ("to remember") has no non-reflexive counterpart; the verb "souvenir" has no meaning on its own.
# Verbs whose direct or indirect objects refer to the same entities as their subjects. For example, « Je m'achèterai cela » ("I'll buy myself that") is just a special case of « Je lui achèterai cela » ("I'll buy him that") that happens to be reflexive.
# Verbs indicating reciprocal actions. For example, « Ils se parlent » means "They're talking to each other." In cases of possible ambiguity, the reciprocal interpretation can be reinforced by adding « Ils se parlent "l'un à l'autre" ».
# Verbs indicating a passive action. For example, one might say, « La porte s'ouvre », which literally means, "The door is opening itself," but really means, "The door is opening."All four kinds use the reflexive pronouns, and exhibit the grammatical particularities of reflexive verbs.

Disjunctive pronouns

: Disjunctive pronouns: "moi", "toi", "lui", "elle", "nous", "vous", "eux", "elles".

The "disjunctive pronouns" are the strong forms of the French pronouns, the forms used in isolation and in emphatic positions. (Compare the use of "me" in the English sentence "Me, I believe you, but I'm not sure anyone else will".)

In French, the disjunctive pronouns are used in the following circumstances:
* as the objects of prepositions: « Je le fais pour toi », "I'm doing it for you."
* in dislocated positions: « Toi, je t'ai déjà vu, moi. », "You, I've seen you before, I have."
* in cleft sentences: « C'est toi qui as tort », "It is you who is wrong." "lit." "It is you who has error/wrong."
* in compound noun phrases: « Lui et moi sommes américains », "He and I are American" (though one might equally say, « Lui et moi, nous sommes américains / on est américains »).
* they are used as emphatic subjects (3rd person only): « "Lui" sait le faire », ""He" knows how to do it" (though one might equally say, « Lui, il sait le faire »).

The reflexive disjunctive form "soi" can be used as the object of a preposition, if it refers to the same entity as the subject. For example, « Un voyageur sait se sentir chez soi n'importe où », "A traveller knows how to feel at home anywhere." Note that this does "not" make the verb reflexive.

The pronoun "y"

The pronoun "y" has two distinct uses:
* It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things introduced by the preposition "à". For more on this use, see above.
* It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase. In this sense, it might be translated as "there". For example:
*: « Je vais "à Paris". » → « Jy vais. » ("I'm going "to Paris"." → "I'm going there.")
*: « Est-ce que tu travailles "dans ce bureau" ? — Non, je ny travaille plus. » ("Do you work "in that office"? — No, I don't work there anymore.")
* It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
*: « Il doit y avoir une erreur. » ("There must be a mistake.")
*: « Je commence à y voir un peu plus clair. » ("I'm starting to see things more clearly.")

The pronoun "en"

The pronoun "en" has the following uses:
*It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things (including infinitives) introduced by the preposition "de". It is also sometimes used in the same way with people (however, it is more common to use disjunctive pronouns rather than using "en" in the case of people).:
*:« Je parle "du problème". » → « Jen parle. » ("I'm talking "about the problem"." → "I'm talking about it.")
*:« Je parle "de Jean". » → « Jen parle. » "or" « Je parle "de lui". » ("I'm talking "about Jean"." → "I'm talking about him.")
*It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase introduced by "de" ("from"). In this sense, it might be translated as "from there":
*:« Je viens "de France". » → « Jen viens. » ("I come "from France"." → "I come "from there".")
*It is the direct-object pronoun used to replace indefinite direct objects; that is, direct objects that are
**introduced by the partitive article (including the plural indefinite article)
**:« Jai bu "du jus de pomme". » → « Jen ai bu. » ("I drank "some apple juice"." → "I drank "some".")
**introduced by "de" when the verb is negated
**:« Je n'ai pas vu "de vaches". » → Je n'en ai pas vu. ("I did not see" any cows"." → "I did not see "any".")
**introduced by a numeral (including the singular indefinite article) or a plural expression ("d'autres", "certains", "quelques")
**:« J'ai mangé "une pomme". » → « Jen ai mangé "une". » ("I ate "an apple"." → "I ate "one".")
**:« J'ai mangé "quelques pommes". » → Jen ai mangé "quelques-unes". ("I ate "a number of apples"." → "I ate "a number of them".")
**introduced by another expression of quantity (usually an adverb + "de")
**:« J'ai vendu "beaucoup de jus de pomme". » → « Jen ai vendu "beaucoup". » ("I sold "a lot of apple juice"." → "I sold "a lot".")
**:« J'ai acheté "trois kilogrammes de pommes". » → « Jen ai acheté "trois kilogrammes". » ("I bought "three kilograms of apples"." → "I bought "three kilograms".")
*It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
*:« J'en veux à Jean. » ("I'm mad at Jean.")
*:« Je vais en finir avec lui. » ("I'm going to finish things off with him.")

Clitic order

The French personal pronouns except disjunctive ones are all clitics [Citation
last=De Cat
first=Cécile
title=French subject clitics are not agreement markers
journal=Lingua
volume=115
year=2005
pages=1195-1219
url=http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~lnpcd/cliticsLingua.pdf] , and phonologically attached to the verb or to the auxiliary verb if any. The word order of the pronominal clitics and the negative clitic "ne" is strictly determined as follows [Citation
last=Miller
first=Philip H.
last2=Sag
first2=Ivan A.
title=French Clitic Movement Without Clitics or Movement
journal=Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
volume=15
year=1997
pages=573-639
url=http://ftp-linguistics.stanford.edu/sag/french-clitic.pdf] [Citation
last=Bonami
first=Olivier
last2=Boyé
first2=Gilles
title=French pronominal clitics and the design of Paradigm Function Morphology
journal=Proceedings of the 5th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting
year=2005
url=http://www.llf.cnrs.fr/Gens/Bonami/BoBo-MMM05.pdf] . Only one clitic can be used for each slot.

*Proclitic orderSlots 3 and 5 cannot coexist.

*Enclitic orderThis order is used only for positive imperatives. Slots 5 and 6 cannot coexist.

# The clitics "-moi" and "-toi" become "-m'" and "-t'" respectively when followed by either "-en" or "-y". In colloquial French, however, it is possible to keep "-moi" and "-toi" intact and change "-en" and "-y" to "-z-en" and "-z-y" respectively, or, to put slot 6 after slot 8.
#:ex. The imperative sentences corresponding to « "Tu m'en donnes" »:
#:« Donne-m'en. » IPA|/dɔn.mɑ̃/ (formal)
#:« Donne-moi-z-en. » IPA|/dɔn.mwa.zɑ̃/ (informal)
#:« Donnes-en-moi. » IPA|/dɔn.zɑ̃.mwa/ (informal)

References

ee also

* French pronouns