DOP and IOP, direct and indirect object pronouns, are the grammar point where French marks are lost by students who have learned the pronoun tables perfectly. The tables are not the problem; the problem is deciding, in under a second, whether the verb wants le or lui, and that depends on the French verb, not the English one. This page gives the two tables, the test that separates them, the list of verbs that take à, the four placement rules, the order for two pronouns, and ten practice sentences with answers.
Download the object pronouns sheet as a PDF (both tables, the à-verbs, the placement and order rules; A4, one page, free).
The two tables
| Person | Direct object pronoun (DOP) | Indirect object pronoun (IOP) |
|---|---|---|
| me | me (m') | me (m') |
| you (tu) | te (t') | te (t') |
| him / it (masc.) | le (l') | lui |
| her / it (fem.) | la (l') | lui |
| us | nous | nous |
| you (vous) | vous | vous |
| them | les | leur |
Four of the seven forms are identical, so the whole DOP/IOP question comes down to the third person: le, la, les against lui, leur. Lui is both him and her; leur is both them, and never takes an -s as a pronoun (leurs with an s is the possessive adjective).
The test: who or what? or to whom?
A direct object answers who? or what? straight after the verb, with nothing in between: Je vois Marie. Je mange la pomme. → Je la vois. Je la mange.
An indirect object answers to whom? or for whom? and is introduced by à in French: Je parle à Marie. Je donne le livre à mes parents. → Je lui parle. Je leur donne le livre.
The test only works in French. I am phoning Marie has a direct object in English, but téléphoner à quelqu'un takes à, so it is Je lui téléphone, never Je la téléphone. The verbs that fool English speakers, in both directions:
| French verb takes à (→ lui / leur) | French verb is direct (→ le / la / les), though English adds a word |
|---|---|
| téléphoner à (to phone), parler à (to talk to) | regarder (to look at) |
| répondre à (to answer), demander à (to ask) | écouter (to listen to) |
| dire à (to tell), écrire à (to write to) | chercher (to look for) |
| donner à, offrir à, envoyer à, prêter à (to give, offer, send, lend to) | attendre (to wait for) |
| plaire à (to please), manquer à (to be missed by), ressembler à (to look like) | payer (to pay for), habiter (to live in) |
| obéir à (to obey), permettre à, défendre à (to allow, forbid) | aimer, adorer, détester, voir, connaître, aider (to help) |
Aider is direct in French (je l'aide) and demander takes à for the person (je lui demande), which is the pair that appears most often in GCSE and IGCSE writing marks.
Where the pronoun goes
- Present, imperfect, future, conditional: directly before the verb. Je le vois. Tu lui parlais. Nous les achèterons.
- Passé composé and other compound tenses: before the helper verb. Je l'ai vu. Elle leur a écrit. And with a DOP (never an IOP) that comes before avoir, the past participle agrees: Je les ai vus. Marie ? Je l'ai vue. This is the preceding direct object rule.
- Negative: ne + pronoun + verb + pas. Je ne le vois pas. Il ne lui a pas répondu.
- Verb + infinitive: before the infinitive, because the pronoun belongs to the infinitive. Je vais le voir. Elle veut leur parler. Tu peux m'aider ?
- Positive command only: after the verb, joined by a hyphen, and me and te become moi and toi. Regarde-le ! Écris-lui ! Aide-moi ! In a negative command it goes back in front: Ne le regarde pas.
The order when there are two
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| me, te, se, nous, vous | le, la, les | lui, leur | y | en |
Je le lui donne. (I give it to him.) Il me l'a expliqué. (He explained it to me.) Elle leur en a parlé. (She spoke to them about it.) Nous vous y attendons. (We are waiting for you there.) The sequence is fixed and does not match English, so it is learned as a chant: me te se nous vous, le la les, lui leur, y, en.
Ten sentences: replace the object with a pronoun
| Sentence | Answer | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Je regarde la télévision. | Je la regarde. |
| 2 | Il téléphone à sa mère. | Il lui téléphone. |
| 3 | Nous attendons le bus. | Nous l'attendons. |
| 4 | Tu as donné le cadeau à tes amis ? | Tu leur as donné le cadeau ? |
| 5 | Elle ne connaît pas mes cousins. | Elle ne les connaît pas. |
| 6 | Je vais écrire à ma grand-mère. | Je vais lui écrire. |
| 7 | Vous cherchez vos clés ? | Vous les cherchez ? |
| 8 | Réponds au professeur ! | Réponds-lui ! |
| 9 | Il a vu Marie hier. | Il l'a vue hier. (agreement: preceding direct object) |
| 10 | Je donne le livre à Paul. | Je le lui donne. |
Numbers 2, 4, 6 and 8 are the ones with à; numbers 3 and 7 are the direct verbs (attendre, chercher) that English speakers make indirect. If the child got those six right, the DOP/IOP question is solved; if not, the à-verb list is the thing to learn, not the pronoun table.
How we teach French grammar
A 1-on-1 online class where the tutor reads the sentence and the child says the pronoun before writing it, twenty sentences in five minutes, then the writing task the exam sets. Object pronouns take two lessons: one for the test and placement, one for two pronouns and the passé composé agreement. The first 30-minute class is free: send the topic and the last test on WhatsApp or the contact page. The verbs that take être in the passé composé are in Dr Mrs Vandertramp verbs.
Questions parents ask
1What is the difference between a DOP and an IOP in French?
2How do you know whether a French verb takes a direct or an indirect object?
3Where does the object pronoun go in French?
4What is the order when there are two pronouns?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.