This article is associated with the course(s):
Introduction to French Grammar

How to Use Indirect Object Pronouns in French

In this lesson, we are going to have an introductory look at using indirect object pronouns in French. This is an extensive topic, and if you’re new to it, you’ll want to build your confidence step by step. So, we’re going to start with an area where you are most likely to encounter these forms first, and it is arguably one of the most useful for spoken French – and that is when we do not want to continually repeat who we are talking about in a sentence.

For example, when we say, ‘I gave the newspaper to Paul,’ we can replace the direct object, (in other words, the thing we are giving), with ‘it.’ I gave it to Paul.’ But we can go one step further than this, of course. We could further shorten our sentence by saying, ‘I gave it to him.’

But how do we deal with this in French? That’s exactly what we’ll look at in this first topic on the intricate subject of indirect pronouns!

1. Replacing the person we are talking to

Let’s begin with a very simple example:

Je donne le journal à Paul.
I give the newspaper to Paul.

In this sentence, le journal is the thing being given, while à Paul tells us who receives it.

If we already know that we are talking about Paul, we do not need to repeat his name:

The important word here is lui.

In this type of sentence, lui can replace à + one person:

à Paul → lui

But there is a useful difference from English. French does not use a different form depending on whether the person is male or female.

So we also have:

So:

à Paul → lui → to him

à Marie → lui → to her

That gives us our first very useful rule:

When an action is directed to one person, French will often allow us to replace à + that person with lui.

We see exactly the same pattern with other common actions:

For now, notice one other important change: the pronoun lui moves in front of the verb.

Je parle à Marie.
becomes
Je lui parle.

We will look more closely at where indirect object pronouns go later. At this stage, the key idea is simply the replacement:

à Paul / à Marie → lui

What about more than one person?

If the action is directed to several people, we use leur instead:

So our first two indirect object pronouns are:

lui = to him / to her
leur = to them

That is enough to get started.

For the moment, we are deliberately keeping the other part of the sentence unchanged:

Je donne le journal à Paul.
→ Je lui donne le journal.

Later, French will allow us to replace le journal as well, but that introduces two pronouns into the same sentence. We will leave that for a deeper stage. First, let’s become comfortable with replacing the person receiving, hearing or being sent something.

See the pattern

What is actually happening?

In these examples, French replaces the whole phrase that tells us who the action is directed to. Grammatically, this person is the indirect object.

The person the action is directed to

One person

à Paul à Marie

↓

lui

to him / to her

More than one person

à mes parents à Paul et Marie

↓

leur

to them

Now see both patterns in complete sentences

One person

Before

Je donne le journal à Paul .

↓

With the pronoun

Je lui donne le journal.

More than one person

Before

Je donne les clés à Paul et Marie .

↓

With the pronoun

Je leur donne les clés.

Three things to notice

1

We replace the whole phrase.

à Paul → lui

2

The à disappears with the phrase.

In this indirect-object construction, à Paul is replaced by lui.

3

The pronoun moves before the verb.

Je parle à Paul. → Je lui parle.

Mini Quiz

Try it: choose lui or leur

Replace the highlighted phrase with lui or leur. Remember: think about whether the action is directed to one person or more than one person.

Question 1

Je téléphone à ma sœur.

Je ___ téléphone.

lui leur

Check answer

Question 2

Nous écrivons à nos amis.

Nous ___ écrivons.

lui leur

Check answer

Question 3

Elle répond à Paul.

Elle ___ répond.

lui leur

Check answer

Question 4

Vous parlez à vos voisins.

Vous ___ parlez.

lui leur

Check answer

Reset activity

The Wider Family of Indirect Object Pronouns

So far, we have concentrated on lui and leur because these are particularly useful when we want to avoid repeating the name of the person — or people — we are talking about.

But they belong to a wider family.

Just as we can say to him, to her or to them, we can also direct an action to me, to you, to us, and so on.

Here are the forms you need:

You will notice that lui is still used for both a male and a female person:

Je parle à Paul. → Je lui parle.
I speak to him.

Je parle à Marie. → Je lui parle.
I speak to her.

And leur works for more than one person, regardless of who those people are:

J’écris à mes parents. → Je leur écris.
I write to them.

What about me and te?

Before a vowel sound or a silent h, me and te shorten to m’ and t’:

Il m’écrit.
He writes to me.

Je t’explique la situation.
I explain the situation to you.

So the complete set is:

me / m’ · te / t’ · lui · nous · vous · leur

Some of those forms may look familiar from direct object pronouns. That is not a coincidence: me, te, nous and vous can appear in both systems. What matters is the job they are doing in the sentence.

We’ll look at that distinction next — because comparing a direct object with an indirect object makes the difference much easier to see.

Direct and Indirection Objects in French: A Comparison

Direct or indirect?

Compare the two patterns

Some pronouns may look similar, but the structure of the verb tells us whether we need a direct or indirect object pronoun.

Direct object

The person follows the verb without à.

Je vois Marie .

↓

Je la vois.

I see her.

J’écoute Paul .

↓

Je l’ écoute.

I listen to him.

Indirect object

In these common patterns, the person is introduced by à.

Je parle à Marie .

↓

Je lui parle.

I speak to her.

Je téléphone à Paul .

↓

Je lui téléphone.

I phone him.

Direct

voir Marie → la voir

Indirect

parler à Marie → lui parler

✓

The important difference is the verb pattern.

We say voir quelqu’un and écouter quelqu’un, but parler à quelqu’un and téléphoner à quelqu’un. The pronoun reflects that structure.

For now, focus on these common patterns. Later, we’ll look at French verbs where à behaves differently.

Common useful patterns

Examples of these sentences in use:

Practice

Practice

Rewrite using an indirect object pronoun

Replace the highlighted person or people with the correct indirect object pronoun. Type the complete new sentence in French.

Question 1

Je téléphone à Marie.

Your answer Check answer

Question 2

Nous écrivons à nos parents.

Your answer Check answer

Question 3

Elle montre la photo à Paul.

Your answer Check answer

Question 4

Ils répondent à leurs amis.

Your answer Check answer

Reset activity

Using Indirect Object Pronouns with an Infinitive

So far, most of our examples have contained just one verb:

Je téléphone à Marie.
→ Je lui téléphone.

But what happens when our sentence contains two verbs, with the second verb in the infinitive?

For example:

Je vais téléphoner à Marie.
I am going to phone Marie.

Here, à Marie belongs to the verb téléphoner. If we replace à Marie with lui, the pronoun goes immediately before the infinitive it belongs to:

The same thing happens in other common two-verb structures:

Keep the pronoun with its verb

A useful way to think about this is to ask:

Which verb does the pronoun belong to?

Compare:

Je lui téléphone.
I phone her.

Je vais lui téléphoner.
I am going to phone her.

In both sentences, lui belongs with téléphoner. When téléphoner becomes an infinitive after aller, the pronoun simply stays with it:

lui téléphoner

The same rule works with the other indirect object pronouns we have already seen:

This is an important pattern, and you will see it constantly with verbs such as aller, vouloir, pouvoir, devoir and préférer followed by another verb.

Indirect Object Pronouns in the Passé Composé

So far, we have mainly used indirect object pronouns with verbs in the present tense:

Je parle à Marie.
→ Je lui parle.

But the same pronouns can, of course, be used when we talk about something that has already happened.

Let’s start with:

J’ai parlé à Marie.
I spoke to Marie.

If we replace à Marie with lui, we get:

Je lui ai parlé.
I spoke to her.

Notice where lui has gone.

The passé composé contains two parts:

ai + parlé

The indirect object pronoun comes before the auxiliary verb:

Je lui ai parlé.

not:

J’ai lui parlé.

The same pattern works with leur:

Nous avons écrit à nos parents.
→ Nous leur avons écrit.
We wrote to them.

And with the other indirect object pronouns:

So although the verb has changed tense, the pronoun still appears before the conjugated part of the verb:

Je lui parle.
I speak to her.

Je lui ai parlé.
I spoke to her.

One important difference from direct object pronouns

You may remember that a direct object pronoun placed before a verb in the passé composé with avoir can cause the past participle to agree.

For example:

J’ai vu Marie.
→ Je l’ai vue.

Because Marie is the direct object, vue agrees with the feminine noun that l’ represents.

But compare that with:

J’ai parlé à Marie.
→ Je lui ai parlé.

Here, Marie is an indirect object. The pronoun lui does not cause agreement.

So we have:

The same applies to leur:

Nous avons écrit à nos amies.
→ Nous leur avons écrit.

Even though nos amies is feminine and plural, écrit does not change, because leur is an indirect object pronoun.

For now, the two patterns to remember are:

Present tense:
Je lui parle.

Passé composé:
Je lui ai parlé.

The pronoun moves in front of the auxiliary, and an indirect object pronoun does not trigger agreement of the past participle.

Using Indirect Object Pronouns with Commands

There is one final placement pattern worth knowing, because you will hear it frequently in spoken French: commands.

So far, we have normally placed our indirect object pronoun before the verb:

Je lui parle.
I speak to her.

Je vais lui parler.
I am going to speak to her.

Je lui ai parlé.
I spoke to her.

But with a positive command, the pattern changes.

Compare:

Parle à Marie !
Speak to Marie!

When we replace à Marie with lui, we say:

Parle-lui !
Speak to her!

The pronoun now comes after the verb, and the two are joined with a hyphen.

More examples:

So with a positive command, remember:

verb + pronoun

Parle-lui !
Écrivez-leur !

What happens with me and te?

There is one additional change to notice.

In a positive command, me becomes moi, and te becomes toi:

Negative commands go back to the usual pattern

With a negative command, the pronoun returns to its familiar position before the verb:

And me and te also return:

So the contrast is:

The patterns to remember

For most of this lesson, you have seen the indirect object pronoun before the verb.

A positive command is the main exception we need at this stage:

Je lui parle.
Je vais lui parler.
Je lui ai parlé.

but:

Parle-lui !

What You’ve Learnt

You’ve now covered the main patterns you need to start using indirect object pronouns confidently in French.

In the common constructions we have looked at, these pronouns allow us to avoid repeating the person or people an action is directed to:

Je parle à Marie.
→ Je lui parle.

Nous écrivons à nos parents.
→ Nous leur écrivons.

The key points to remember are:

• me / m’ = to me
• te / t’ = to you
• lui = to him / to her
• nous = to us
• vous = to you
• leur = to them
• The pronoun normally comes before the verb: Je lui parle.
• With an infinitive, it goes before the infinitive it belongs to: Je vais lui parler.
• In the passé composé, it comes before the auxiliary: Je lui ai parlé.
• An indirect object pronoun does not cause past-participle agreement: Je lui ai parlé.
• With a positive command, the pronoun follows the verb: Parle-lui !
• With a negative command, it returns before the verb: Ne lui parle pas !

One final point is worth keeping in mind: French does not simply turn every à + person expression into lui or leur. The verb matters. In this lesson, we have concentrated on some of the most common and useful patterns where this replacement works naturally.

Go Deeper

Give It a Go!

If you’d like to test your knowledge of what you’ve learned so far, you can select from any quizzes or activities below.