French indirect object pronouns are essential for fluent conversation and writing. They are used to replace the nouns that receive the action indirectly in a sentence.

This guide will help you understand and use French indirect object pronouns: me/m’ ([to] me), te/t’ ([to] you), lui ([to] him / [to] her / [to] it), nous ([to] us), vous ([to] you), and leur ([to] them).

We’ll start by defining what an indirect object pronoun is and how it functions in French. Next, we’ll discuss when to use each pronoun, including common sentence structures. We’ll conclude with a comprehensive overview of all French personal pronouns to prevent any confusion. Allons-y!

Indirect Object Pronouns: French Fundamentals

Before we even get into the French indirect object pronouns, let’s just make sure we’re clear on what exactly an indirect object is, and how the indirect objects can be replaced with pronouns. Then we’ll learn all of the indirect object pronouns in French.

Definition of an Indirect Object

An indirect object is a part of a sentence that refers to the person or thing that indirectly receives the action of the verb. It answers the question “to whom?” or “for whom?”

Let’s see some examples of sentences with indirect objects in English:

• I gave a book to Mary. (To whom did I give a book? To Mary.)

• He sent a letter to his brother. (To whom did he send a letter? To his brother.)

• They are talking to the manager. (To whom are they talking? To the manager.)

Definition of an Indirect Object Pronoun

Indirect object pronouns replace the indirect object of a sentence when it’s already known, making sentences more concise.

In French, they are known as pronoms compléments d’objet indirect, or simply pronoms COI.

Now let’s see our previous examples where we replace the indirect objects with indirect object pronouns:

• I gave her a book. – I gave a book to her. (Mary)

• He sent him a letter. – I sent a letter to him. (His brother)

• They are talking to him. (The manager)

As we can see in these first two examples, the indirect object pronoun can often stand alone without its preposition to. Depending on how the sentence is phrased, however, this to becomes an integral part of the indirect object. It may also take another preposition such as for.

All the French Indirect Object Pronouns

Here’s a list of the French indirect object pronouns that correspond to each of the subject pronouns, with their English equivalents.

Note that unlike direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns do not change according to the gender of the noun they replace. The contracted forms of me and te are just used before words that begin with vowel sounds, as m’ and t’. The moi and toi forms are only used in the imperative, as we’ll see in our section on word order below.

• My mother is writing to me. – Ma mère m’écrit.

• I’ll buy you an ice cream at the beach. – Je vais t’acheter une glace à la plage.

• His parents promised him a kitten. – Ses parents lui ont promis un chaton.

• Can you tell her the story? – Peux-tu lui raconter l’histoire?

• Juliette offered us vegan cookies. – Juliette nous à offert des cookies végétaliens.

• We will give you the details later. – Nous vous donnerons les détails plus tard.

• She bought them a gift. – Elle leur a acheté un cadeau.

Y in French

There’s one more word that can be considered an indirect object pronoun in French, though only in specific circumstances: the simple one-letter word y. Y is used in a number of contexts, so for a full explanation of this specific word we’ll recommend you check out our detailed post on how to use y and en in French. For now, we’ll just leave you with a few examples of y as an indirect object pronoun in French.

• Did you read the question? Yes, I already responded to it. – As-tu lus la question ? Oui, j’y ai déjà répondu.

• I live next to the library, so I go [to] there often. – J’habite à côté de la médiathèque, alors je m’y rends régulièrement.

Indirect Object Pronouns: French Word Order

Now that we know how to recognize indirect objects and we’ve learned the French indirect object pronouns, let’s see how they’re used within a sentence.

Before conjugated verbs

In standard declarative sentences, the French indirect object pronoun is placed before the conjugated verb.

• He is speaking to us. – Il nous parle.

• The waiter suggests dessert to us. – Le serveur nous propose du dessert.

In negative sentences, the indirect object pronoun goes between the ne and the conjugated verb. The structure is: ne + [indirect object pronoun] + [conjugated action verb] + pas

• I am not writing to them. – Je ne leur écris pas.

• We do not offer you reserved seats. – Nous ne vous proposons pas des places réservées.

In compound tenses like the passé composé, the indirect object pronoun precedes the conjugated auxiliary verb.

• You have spoken to her three times. – Tu lui as parlé trois fois.

• You promised us ice cream. – Vous nous avez promis de la glace.

In sentences with both direct and indirect object pronouns, the two are placed together in that order. Keep in mind that this sentence structure isn’t that common, as native speakers tend to repeat at least one of the nouns rather than changing it to a pronoun and resorting to this form.

• Our dog loves his kibbles. We give him them every day. – Notre chien adore ses croquettes. Nous les lui donnons tous les jours.

• I bought this game console for the kids. I’m giving it to them. – J’ai acheté cette console de jeu pour les enfants. Je la leur donne.

These same rules of word order we’ve seen in each of the instances above also apply to French indirect object pronouns in interrogative sentences (questions).

• Does he suggest us dessert? – Nous propose-t-il du dessert ?

• Are you writing to them? – Tu leur écris ?

• Have you spoken to her? – Lui avez-vous parlé ?

• You really give him them every day? – Vous les lui donnez vraiment tous les jours ?

Stressed pronouns vs Indirect object pronouns

Let’s take a moment to look at another type of French pronoun that often plays a similar role in a sentence as indirect object pronouns. These are known as the French stressed pronouns, or les pronoms toniques in French. Many of the words are indeed identical, as we can see in the following table.

The sentence structure where stressed pronouns can cause confusion is when we place them at the end of a phrase after a preposition. In this sense, the French sentence closely resembles a common version of the English one.

Let’s compare these two types of French pronouns through some examples. The first sentence uses indirect object pronouns and the second uses stressed pronouns in each of the following French examples. The English examples are interchangeable.

• She talks to me. – Elle me parle. – Elle parle à moi.

• I’m offering you this ticket. – I’m offering this ticket to you. – Je t’offre ce billet. – J’offre ce billet à toi.

• My dad loves wine, so I bought him this bottle. – I bought this bottle for him. – Mon père aime le vin, alors je lui ai acheté cette bouteille. – J’ai acheté cette bouteille pour lui.

• Your sister needs the car more than you, so we’re lending it to her. – Ta sœur a plus besoin de la voiture que toi, alors nous la lui prêtons. – Ta sœur a plus besoin de la voiture que toi, alors nous la prêtons à elle.

• Your parents are vegetarian? I can prepare them a leek quiche. – I can prepare a leek quiche for them. – Tes parents sont végétariens ? Je peux leur préparer une quiche aux poireaux. – Je peux préparer une quiche aux poireaux pour eux.

• As the women walked by the orchard, the farmer picked them a few ripe apples. – He picked a few ripe apples for them. – Lorsque les femmes sont passées par le verger, l’agriculteur leur a cueilli quelques pommes mûres. – Il a cueilli quelques pommes mûres pour elles.

Aside from the different words that we use for several of these pronouns, the main difference between their use is the emphasis that’s implied with one or the other. Use of the stressed pronoun is indeed favored when we want to really stress the recipient, whereas they’re not really emphasized when we simply use the the indirect object pronoun.

For more details, check out our detailed post on stressed pronouns in French.

Moi and Toi after affirmative imperatives

In our tables of French indirect object pronouns, we noted two in parentheses: moi and toi. This is because there’s one grammatical structure where these are used instead of me and te: affirmative imperative sentences.

Whereas for all the declarative sentences we need to place the indirect object pronouns before the conjugated verbs, when we give commands in French the indirect object pronoun follows the verb. We also connect the two with a hyphen.

The best English translations for toi and vous in this construction may also become yourself and yourselves rather than you. For all the other French indirect object pronouns, the same words and translations we saw above still apply.

• Tell me the truth! – Dis-moi la vérité !

• You deserve it. Treat yourself. – Tu le mérites. Gâtes-toi.

• Do you think Marine is cute? Ask her to go out with you! – Penses-tu que Marine est mignonne ? Demande-lui de sortir avec toi !

• Here’s €10. Buy yourselves some ice creams. – Voici €10. Achètez-vous des glaces.

In affirmative commands with both a direct object pronoun and an indirect object pronoun, the two generally both follow the imperative verb in that order, with hyphens linking all three words.

• That’s my pen. Please give it to me. – C’est mon stylo. S’il vous plaît, donnez-le-moi.

• Do you have an eraser? Lend it to me, please. – As-tu une gomme ? Prête-le-moi s’il te plaît.

• These books belong to your sisters. Give them to them. – Ces livres appartiennent à tes sœurs. Donne-les-leur.

When we give commands in the negative, the word order is the same as we saw in previous sections with declarative sentences. Here, the object pronouns precede the verb conjugated verb.

• Don’t lie to me. – Ne me mens pas.

• Don’t talk to him. – Ne lui parle pas.

• The dogs will destroy those toys. Don’t give them to them. – Les chiens détruiront ces jouets. Ne les leur donnez pas.

List of Personal Pronouns in French

Today we’ve focused on the French indirect object pronouns, while also encountering the other categories of personal pronouns along the way. Many of the words we use in these different grammatical contexts are identical, like nous and vous, while many of them differ.

To help differentiate between them all, here’s a table of the French personal pronouns in each category. In addition, remember that there are also y and en, which can play a few roles. For full explanations of how each type of French personal pronoun functions, click through to their specific lessons.

Conclusion: French Indirect Object Pronouns

Today we’ve covered everything you need to know about indirect object pronouns in French.

We started off just reviewing what is an indirect object, and then looking at how indirect objects can be replaced by pronouns. We saw how they work in English, and then made the comparison with French sentences. We introduced the whole set of French indirect object pronouns, including a mention of the special case of y.

Then we got into French sentence structure when using indirect object pronouns. We saw that in most sentences, we place the indirect object pronoun before the conjugated verb. We then looked at other sentence structures which are exceptions to this rule, including the use of stressed pronouns, and giving affirmative commands.

We wrapped up today’s lesson with a full table of personal pronouns in French so you can keep them all straight. This emphasized the fact that, while many of the words are indeed identical between grammatical categories, many of these French pronouns are indeed unique depending on where they’re used in a sentence.

With that, today’s lesson should have given you some solid insight into the proper use of indirect objects in French!