24/03/2020 French Double Pronoun Order - Lawless French Grammar

Double Pronoun Order

Ordre de deux pronoms compléments

Sometimes one pronoun just isn’t enough. A sentence

might need both a direct and indirect object, or a reflexive
pronoun as well as an adverbial. When this happens, word
order becomes an issue: how do you know which pronoun
to place first? It’s actually pretty easy, once you learn the
rules.

 Be sure you fully understand how to use each type of

pronoun before continuing with this lesson.

As you know, object, reflexive, and adverbial pronouns

precede the verbs they modify in every tense and mood—
except the affirmative imperative, when they follow it Share / Tweet / Pin Me!
(learn more). When a verb has double pronouns, they still
precede or follow, but the order of the two pronouns themselves also varies.

Normal pronoun order

In the vast majority of verb tenses and moods, the pronouns precede the verb and must be placed in this
order:

1   2 . . . 3   4

    me   le   lui            
te
Subject pronoun   se   la       y   en   conjugated verb
nous
    vous   les   leur            

Par exemple…

Il me les montre.   He’s showing them to me.

Je le lui ai donné.   I gave it to him.

Ne la leur envoie pas.   Don’t send it to them.

Il y en aura beaucoup.   There will be a lot of them.

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24/03/2020 French Double Pronoun Order - Lawless French Grammar

  Two pronouns is the limit. The French won’t say something like Je le lui y ai donné to mean "I gave
it to him there"; instead, they’ll reword the sentence to remove one of the pronouns.

Par exemple…

Je lui y ai donné le livre.   I gave him the book there.

Je l’y ai donné à Michel.   I gave it to Michel there.

Je le lui ai donné à l’école.   I gave it to him at school.

Affirmative imperative pronoun order

In the affirmative imperative, pronouns follow the verb and are connected to it and to one another with
hyphens, in this order: direct + indirect + y / en.

1   2 . . . 3

moi
    le        
toi
lui
Imperative – la – –   y
nous
vous
    les       en
leur

Par exemple…

Montre-le-moi.   Show it to me.

Donnons-la-leur.   Let’s give it to them.

Emmenez-les-y.   Take them there.

Donne-m’en.   Give me some.

  Remember that moi and toi are stressed forms that can only be used when at the end of the
command. When they precede y or en, they revert back to me and te and are therefore obliged to
contract to m’ and t’.

   

Quiz: Double pronoun order

Related lessons

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24/03/2020 French Double Pronoun Order - Lawless French Grammar

Adverbial pronouns

Direct object pronouns

Indirect object pronouns

Reflexive pronouns

Placement of object pronouns

Verb tenses and moods

 

En español

Orden de dos pronombres complementos

 

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