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Le, la, les, lui or leur: object and position

CEFR A2

What you will learn

  • Distinguish a direct object from a person object introduced by “à” with the core verbs in the lesson.
  • Place le, la, les, lui or leur before the verb that governs the object, including with an infinitive or the passé composé.

The idea

With the core verbs in this lesson, le/la/les replace a direct object and lui/leur replace a person object with à; all go before the verb that governs them.

First, the question that decides everything: does the verb take “à” in front of that complement? If it does not, the complement is direct and the pronoun is “le”, “la” or “les”. If it does, the complement is indirect and the pronoun is “lui” in the singular and “leur” in the plural.

“Voir quelqu'un” has no “à”, so “je le vois”. “Parler à quelqu'un” has one, so “je lui parle”. You do not ask the question in English: you ask it of the French verb, because the two languages do not always agree about which verbs take a preposition.

The position is not negotiable, and this is where English will fight you: the pronoun goes in front of the conjugated verb. “Je le vois”, never “je vois le”. In the passé composé it goes in front of the auxiliary — “je l'ai vu” — and with an infinitive it goes in front of the infinitive: “je vais l'appeler”.

One short note about spelling: “le” and “la” elide before a vowel — “je l'écoute” — and at that point they stop telling you the gender, exactly as the article did. “Lui” and “leur” never elide.

Object pronouns

fonctionsingulierplurielposition
COD masculinlelesavant le verbe
COD fémininlalesavant le verbe
COI personne avec àluileuravant le verbe
impératif affirmatif-le / -la / -lui-les / -leuraprès le verbe

How it sounds

  • Je le vois tous les jours.“Voir” takes no preposition, so the pronoun is direct.
  • Je lui parle tous les jours.“Parler à” has “à”, so the pronoun is indirect and does not tell you the gender.
  • Je vais l'appeler ce soir.With an infinitive the pronoun sits in front of the infinitive, not the conjugated verb.
  • Nous leur écrivons chaque semaine.“Écrire à” calls for the indirect one, and the plural is “leur”, with no “-s”.
Three scenes: a letter addressed to two people, a figure being seen, and a book beside a reading planner.
Each scene makes you rebuild the verb with its object before choosing the pronoun.

Your turn

Two or three, to check that the bit above landed.

  1. Use this image

    J'écris à mes parents : je ___ écris chaque semaine.

    leur — “Écrire à” + plural: “leur”. It never takes an “-s”.

  2. Use this image

    Tu vois Marie ? Oui, je ___ vois souvent.

    la — “Voir” has no “à”: it is direct, and “Marie” is feminine singular.

  3. Use this image

    Ce livre, je vais ___ lire ce week-end.

    le — “Lire” is direct, and with an infinitive the pronoun goes before the infinitive.

When it doesn't hold

What breaks the rule, said out loud. Hiding it is what makes you feel cheated in the exam.

  • A handful of verbs with “à” — “penser à”, “tenir à”, “faire attention à” — do not take “lui” when a person is involved: they need the stressed pronoun behind.Je pense à elle.
  • In the affirmative imperative the pronoun jumps behind and joins with a hyphen. In the negative it goes back to its place: “Ne le regarde pas”.Regarde-le !

What your own language pushes you to say

Wrong Je vois le tous les jours.

Right Je le vois tous les jours.

English puts the object after the verb and never moves it, so “je vois le” feels like the natural order and is simply not French. Word order is the whole difficulty here — the choice between “le” and “lui” is comparatively easy, because you can test it by asking whether the French verb needs “à”.

Curriculum alignment and sources

Once it makes sense

Practise this: le, la, les or lui, leurEn and y: replacing quantities, de, à and placesImparfait or passé composé: setting, habit and eventFuture and conditional: stems, endings and usesQui, que, où or dont: find the gapThe verb and its preposition: à, de or none