French personal pronouns
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:French language French personal pronouns (analogous to English I, you, he/she, we, they, etc.) reflect the person and number of their referent, and in the case of the third person, its gender as well (much like the English distinction between him and her, except that French lacks an inanimate third person pronoun it or a gender neutral they and thus draws this distinction among all third person nouns, singular and plural). They also reflect the role they play in their clause: subject, direct object, indirect object, or other.
Personal pronouns display a number of grammatical particularities and complications not found in their English counterparts: some of them can only be used in certain circumstances; some of them change form depending on surrounding words; and their placement is largely unrelated to the placement of the nouns they replace.
Overview
The second person
French has a T-V distinction in the second person singular. That is, it uses two different sets of pronouns: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and their various forms.
The usage of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} depends on the kind of relationship (formal or informal) that exists between the speaker and the person with whom they are speaking and the age differences between these subjects.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The pronoun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is informal and singular, spoken to an individual who is equal or junior to the speaker. The pronoun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is used in the singular (but with second-person plural verb forms) to speak to an individual who is senior to the speaker or socially "more important" than the speaker. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is also used in the plural for all groups of people, whether junior, equal or senior.
Subject pronouns
As noted above, the personal pronouns change form to reflect the role they play in their clause. The forms used for subjects are called the subject pronouns, subjective pronouns, or nominative pronouns. They are as follows:
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | lang}} | lang}} | |
| second person | informal | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} |
| formal | lang}} | ||
| third person | masculine | lang}} | lang}} |
| feminine | lang}} | lang}} | |
When the predicate is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Gloss) plus a noun phrase, the pronoun Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Wikt-lang in elision contexts) is normally used instead of the other third person subject pronouns. For example, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("He is a smart man"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("Those are my parents"). {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is primarily used as a "neuter" pronoun to refer to events and situations: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "I saw John yesterday. It was fun."
Another "neuter" pronoun is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} when used as the "dummy subject" of an impersonal verb, like English it in the same context: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, etc.
Neologisms such as Template:Wikt-lang(Template:Wikt-lang), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} have emerged in recent years as gender-neutral alternatives to the masculine and feminine pronouns, but are not yet considered standard in French<ref>"Nonbinary pronoun 'they' sparks French language debate". The Connexion, December 11, 2019.</ref> despite their use in some speech communities.<ref>Knisely, Kris A. Le français non-binaire: Linguistic forms used by non-binary speakers of French. Foreign Language Annals. 2020;53:850–876.https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12500876</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (plural Template:Wikt-lang) is the most widely-known and used gender-neutral pronoun.Template:Cn
The third person plural is masculine ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) when a group contains both males and females or masculine and feminine nouns.
On
The subject pronoun Template:Wikt-lang (from Old French {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Gloss, from Latin Template:Wikt-lang Template:Gloss) takes third-person singular verb forms in the same way that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} do, and is used:
- In the same way as English one, you, and they, where the subject is generalised or otherwise unclear or unimportant:
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "It is by blacksmithing that one becomes a blacksmith."
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to think that you are right," i.e. "to think oneself right."
- As an extension of the above, it is often used to avoid the passive voice in French:
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "[Someone] gave it to me." In English, it would be more common to say, "It was given to me.", which would be rendered as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in French.
- To replace the subject pronoun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in informal speech. In this case, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} takes plural adjectives, even though it always takes a third-person singular verb. The corresponding reflexive object pronoun, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, is also third-person, but first-person possessive pronouns must be used when {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} meaning {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the antecedent. The associated disjunctive pronoun in this context is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "We are about to go."
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "Us, we are American, and you, you are French."
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "Shall we get rid of our luggage?"
| Function | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Person | Subject | Reflexive | Direct object | Indirect object | Disjunctive | ||
| Plural | 1st | formal | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | |||||
| informal | lang}} | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | |||||
It is Template:Em used for the number one, or as in one of them. As in English, numbers can be used as pronouns, and this is also true of the French word Template:Wikt-lang(Template:Wikt-lang):
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "Two went in and one came back out."
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has limited pronoun forms: it has only a reflexive form, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and a disjunctive form {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (which is also only used when the sense is reflexive). The pronoun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Gloss) can sometimes be used to fill the roles of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}:
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "Someone told me..."
Direct-object pronouns
Like the English him, her, it, and them, the pronouns {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are only used with Template:Em direct objects. For Template:Em ones (e.g., "some juice"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is used; see Template:Slink, below.
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | lang}} | lang}} | |
| second person | informal | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} |
| formal | lang}} | ||
| third person | masculine | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} |
| feminine | lang}} | ||
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are not used when the direct object refers to the same entity as the subject; see Template:Slink, below.
Examples:
- (I have a book.) I am giving it to the teacher. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- (Danielle is my sister.) Have you seen her? {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
Indirect-object pronouns
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | lang}} | lang}} | |
| second person | informal | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} |
| formal | lang}} | ||
| third person | lang}} | lang}} | |
In French, an indirect object is an object of a verb that is introduced using a preposition (especially the preposition {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). For example, in the sentence {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I spoke to Jean"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the indirect object in the French sentence.
Indirect-object pronouns (or dative pronouns) generally only replace indirect objects with the preposition {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. When an indirect object pronoun is used, it replaces the entire prepositional phrase; for example, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I gave him a book").
Broadly speaking, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are used to refer to people, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (see Template:Slink, below) is used to refer to things. However, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} will sometimes also be used in referring to things.
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are replaced with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} before a vowel) when the indirect object refers to the same entity as the subject; see Template:Slink, below.
As mentioned above, the indirect object pronouns are not always used to replace indirect objects:
- They are not used when the preposition is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} rather than {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; but see Template:Slink, below.
- Some verbs are incompatible with indirect object pronouns, such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Gloss) and all reflexive verbs. For example, one says, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I put my trust in him"), Template:Em {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
Reflexive pronouns
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | lang}} | lang}} | |
| second person | informal | lang}} | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} |
| formal | lang}} | ||
| third person | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | ||
In French, as in English, reflexive pronouns are used in place of direct- and indirect-object pronouns that refer to the same entity or entities as the subject. A verb with a reflexive pronoun is called a reflexive verb, and has many grammatical particularities aside from the choice of pronoun; see French verbs.
There are four kinds of reflexive verbs:
- Verbs that are inherently reflexive. For example, the verb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Gloss) has no non-reflexive counterpart; the verb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has no meaning on its own.
- Verbs whose direct or indirect objects refer to the same entities as their subjects. For example, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I shall buy myself that") is just a special case of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("I shall buy him that") that happens to be reflexive.
- Verbs indicating reciprocal actions. For example, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} means "They are talking to each other." In cases of possible ambiguity, the reciprocal interpretation can be reinforced by adding {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
- Verbs indicating a passive action. For example, one might say, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which literally means, "The door is opening itself," but really means, "The door is opening."
All four kinds use the reflexive pronouns, and exhibit the grammatical particularities of reflexive verbs.
Disjunctive pronouns
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | moi | nous | |
| second person | informal | toi | vous |
| formal | vous | ||
| third person | masculine | lui | eux |
| feminine | elle | elles | |
Disjunctive pronouns are the strong forms of French pronouns, the forms used in isolation and in emphatic positions (compare the use of me in the English sentence "Me, I believe you, but I am not sure anyone else will"; for more, see Intensive pronoun).
In French, disjunctive pronouns are used in the following circumstances:
- as the objects of prepositions: « Je le fais pour toi », "I am doing it for you."
- in dislocated positions: « Toi, je t'ai déjà vu, moi. », "You, I have seen you before, I have."
- in cleft sentences: « C'est toi qui as tort », "It is you who are wrong." lit. "It is you who have error/wrong."
- in compound noun phrases: « Lui et moi sommes américains », "He and I are American" (though one might equally say, « Lui et moi, nous sommes américains / on est américains »).
- as emphatic subjects (third person only): « Lui sait le faire », "He knows how to do it" (though one might equally say, « Lui, il sait le faire »).
The reflexive disjunctive form soi can be used as the object of a preposition, if it refers to the same entity as the subject. For example, « Un voyageur sait se sentir chez soi n'importe où », "A traveller knows how to feel at home anywhere." Note that this does not make the verb reflexive.
Enclitic pronouns
While most clitic pronouns precede the verb, two categories of pronouns can be suffixed to it instead : subject pronouns in the case of inversion, and object pronouns of non-negated imperative verbs.
Enclitic pronouns are pronounced together with the verb, causing the word-final stress to retract onto the pronoun, with the exceptions of -je and -ce, which are non-syllabic and merely add a consonant to the final syllable of the preceding verb.
Enclitic subject pronouns
| spelling | pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| first person | singular | -je | /ʒ/, /ɛʒ/Template:Efn |
| plural | -nous | /nu/ | |
| second person | singular | -tu | /ty/ |
| plural | -vous | /vu/ | |
| third person | singular | -il, -t-il Template:Efn | /til/ |
| -elle, -t-elle Template:Efn | /tɛl/ | ||
| -on, -t-on Template:Efn | /tɔ̃/ | ||
| -ce Template:Efn | /s/ | ||
| plural | -ils, -t-ils Template:Efn | /til/ | |
| -elles, -t-elles Template:Efn | /tɛl/ | ||
Enclitic subject pronouns are mostly used when forming questions. They are also used after some sentence-initial adverbs and adverbial phrases, and in a handful of other non-interrogative sentence structures :
- Qui êtes-vous ? (interrogative)
- Peut-être est-il déjà trop tard. (adverbial phrase "peut-être" causes inversion)
- « C'en est assez ! » s'exclama-t-il. (inversion after quotation)
Enclitic object pronouns
Forms that deviate from their proclitic equivalents and irregular or noteworthy pronunciations are highlited in bold.
| Proclitic form | Enclitic form | pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| first person | singular | me, m' | -moi | /mwa/ |
| plural | nous | -nous | /nu/ | |
| second person | singular | te, t' | -toi | /twa/ |
| plural | vous | -vous | /vu/ | |
| third person | singular | le, l' | -le | /lø/ |
| la, l' | -la | /la/ | ||
| lui | -lui | /lɥi/ | ||
| y | -y | /zi/Template:Efn | ||
| en | -en | /zɑ̃/Template:Efn | ||
| plural | les | -les | /le/ | |
| leur | -leur | /lœʁ/ | ||
Enclitic object pronouns are exclusively used after imperative verbs : when the imperative is negated, proclitic forms are used instead.
- Vas-y ! - N'y va pas !
The pronoun y
Template:Uncited section The pronoun y has two distinct uses:
- It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things introduced by the preposition à. For more on this use, see above.
- It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase. In this sense, it might be translated as there. For example:
- « Je vais à Paris. » → « JTemplate:'y vais. » ("I am going to Paris." → "I am going there.")
- « Est-ce que tu travailles dans ce bureau ? — Non, je nTemplate:'y travaille plus. » ("Do you work in that office? — No, I do not work there anymore.")
- It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
- « Il doit y avoir une erreur. » ("There must be a mistake.")
- « Je commence à y voir un peu plus clair. » ("I am starting to see things more clearly.")
The pronoun en
Template:Uncited section The pronoun en has the following uses:
- It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things (including infinitives) introduced by the preposition de. It is also sometimes used in the same way with people (however, it is more common to use disjunctive pronouns rather than using en in the case of people).:
- « Je parle du problème. » → « JTemplate:'en parle. » ("I am talking about the problem." → "I am talking about it.")
- « Je parle de Jean. » → « JTemplate:'en parle. » or « Je parle de lui. » ("I am talking about Jean." → "I am talking about him.")
- It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase introduced by de ("from"). In this sense, it might be translated as from there:
- « Je viens de France. » → « JTemplate:'en viens. » ("I come from France." → "I come from there.")
- It is the direct-object pronoun used to replace indefinite direct objects; that is, direct objects that are:
- introduced by the partitive article (including the plural indefinite article)
- « JTemplate:'ai bu du jus de pomme. » → « JTemplate:'en ai bu. » ("I drank some apple juice." → "I drank some.")
- introduced by de when the verb is negated
- « Je n'ai pas vu de vaches. » → Je n'en ai pas vu. ("I did not see any cows." → "I did not see any.")
- introduced by a numeral (including the singular indefinite article) or a plural expression (d'autres, certains, quelques)
- « J'ai mangé une pomme. » → « JTemplate:'en ai mangé une. » ("I ate an apple." → "I ate one.")
- « J'ai mangé quelques pommes. » → JTemplate:'en ai mangé quelques-unes. ("I ate a number of apples." → "I ate a number of them.")
- introduced by another expression of quantity (usually an adverb + de)
- « J'ai vendu beaucoup de jus de pomme. » → « JTemplate:'en ai vendu beaucoup. » ("I sold a lot of apple juice." → "I sold a lot.")
- « J'ai acheté trois kilogrammes de pommes. » → « JTemplate:'en ai acheté trois kilogrammes. » ("I bought three kilograms of apples." → "I bought three kilograms.")
- introduced by the partitive article (including the plural indefinite article)
- It is used idiomatically with certain verbs, without replacing anything:
- « J'en veux à Jean. » ("I am mad at Jean.")
- « Je vais en finir avec lui. » ("I am going to finish things off with him.")
Clitic order
French personal pronouns, aside from their disjunctive forms, are all clitics,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and the order of pronominal clitics as well as the negative clitic ne is strictly determined as follows.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Only one clitic can be used for each slot. Where one wishes to express an idea that would involve slots that cannot coexist or multiple pronouns from the same slot, the indirect object is expressed as the object of à or pour (thus Je me donne à toi – "I give myself to you"). The use of more than two clitics beyond the subject and, where necessary, ne is uncommon; constructions such as Je lui y en ai donné may be perceived as unacceptable, and other constructions must then be used to express the same ideas.
- Proclitic order
- Slots 3 and 5 cannot coexist.
| Number | Person | Slot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||
| Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | ||
| Singular | 1st | je | ne | me | ||||
| 2nd | tu | te | ||||||
| 3rd | il | se | le | lui | y | en | ||
| elle | la | |||||||
| on | le/la | |||||||
| Plural | 1st | nous | nous | |||||
| 2nd | vous | vous | ||||||
| 3rd | ils | se | les | leur | y | en | ||
| elles | ||||||||
- Enclitic order
- Used only for positive imperatives. Slots 2 and 3 cannot coexist.
| Number | Person | Slot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
| Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | Template:Abbr | ||||
| Singular | 1st | -moi1 | ||||||
| 2nd | -toi1 | |||||||
| 3rd | -le | -lui | (-z)-y1 | (-z)-en1 | ||||
| -la | ||||||||
| Plural | 1st | -nous | ||||||
| 2nd | -vous | |||||||
| 3rd | -les | -leur | (-z)-y1 | (-z)-en1 | ||||
- The clitics -moi and -toi become -m' and -t' respectively when followed by either -en or -y. In colloquial French, however, it is possible to keep -moi and -toi intact and change -en and -y to -z-en and -z-y respectively, or to put slot 5 before slot 3, or less commonly, before slot 1 or 2.
- ex. The imperative sentences corresponding to « Tu m'en donnes »:
- « Donne-m'en. » {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (formal)
- « Donne-moi-z-en. » {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (informal)
- « Donnes-en-moi. » {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (informal)