Object pronouns (COD and COI)
The short answer
Direct objects take me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les. Indirect objects: those introduced by à: take me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. Only the third person differs. All of them go before the verb, not after it, which is the part English speakers have to unlearn.
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The rule
French object pronouns replace a noun already known from context. A direct object follows the verb with no preposition and takes le, la or les in the third person. An indirect object is introduced by à and takes lui or leur. In the first and second person the forms are identical, so the distinction only matters in the third. Every object pronoun goes in front of the conjugated verb, and the only exception is a positive command, where the pronoun follows and attaches with a hyphen.
| Form | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Direct (COD) | metelelanousvousles | Je le vois. |
| Indirect (COI) | meteluinousvousleur | Je lui parle. |
| Position | before the conjugated verb | Je ne le vois pas. |
| With an infinitive | before the infinitive | Je vais le faire. |
| Positive command | after the verbwith a hyphen | Donne-le-moi ! |
| Two pronouns | me/te/nous/vousle/la/leslui/leur | Il me le donne. |
Part 1 of 3
Telling COD from COI
The verb decides. If it takes its object directly: voir quelqu’un, aimer quelque chose, the object is direct and takes le, la, les. If the object arrives with à: parler à quelqu’un, téléphoner à quelqu’un, it is indirect and takes lui or leur.
The trap is that French and English disagree about which verbs are which. Téléphoner à, répondre à, ressembler à and obéir à are indirect in French and direct in English; attendre, chercher, écouter and regarder are direct in French and take a preposition in English.
Tu vois Marc ? Oui, je le vois.
Voir takes a direct object.
Tu parles à Marc ? Oui, je lui parle.
Parler à takes an indirect object.
J’attends le bus. → Je l’attends.
I’m waiting for the bus. → I’m waiting for it.
NBDirect in French, despite the “for” in English.
Part 2 of 3
Where the pronoun goes
Before the conjugated verb, always: je le vois, je ne le vois pas, l’as-tu vu ? In a compound tense it goes before the auxiliary, not before the participle: je l’ai vu.
With a verb plus infinitive, the pronoun attaches to whichever verb it is the object of, which is almost always the infinitive: je vais le faire, je veux les voir. The exception is a positive command, where it follows: regarde-moi, and me becomes moi.
Je ne les ai pas encore lus.
Before the auxiliary, inside the negation.
Tu peux me l’envoyer ?
Both pronouns before the infinitive.
Dis-moi la vérité. Ne me mens pas.
Tell me the truth. Don’t lie to me.
NBAfter a positive command, before a negative one.
Part 3 of 3
Two pronouns at once
When a direct and an indirect pronoun meet, the order is fixed: me, te, nous, vous come first; then le, la, les; then lui, leur. So il me le donne but il le lui donne: the third-person indirect goes last.
Y and en come after all of them, in that order, which is why il y en a is the shape it is. In practice two-pronoun sentences are worth practicing as fixed patterns rather than assembled from a table each time.
Elle me l’a expliqué hier.
She explained it to me yesterday.
Je le leur ai déjà dit.
I’ve already told them.
NBThird-person indirect after the direct object.
Il y en a encore trois.
There are still three of them left.
Mistakes to avoid
What learners actually get wrong
Je vois lui.
Je le vois.
Object pronouns go before the verb and take their own forms, lui after a verb is a stressed pronoun, used only after prepositions: avec lui, pour lui. Putting the English word order into French produces this error almost every time.
J’ai téléphoné le.
Je lui ai téléphoné.
Téléphoner takes à in French, so the object is indirect even though English says “phoned him” with no preposition. The verb’s French construction decides the pronoun, not the English one.
Je l’ai vue, referring to a film.
Je l’ai vu.
The participle agrees with a direct object that comes before it, so the pronoun’s gender has to be tracked. Un film is masculine, so vu; if it were la pièce, vue would be right.
Donne-me le livre.
Donne-moi le livre.
After a positive command, me becomes moi and te becomes toi. This is the only place the stressed forms appear in a pronoun chain, and it catches learners who have just mastered the pre-verb position.
Now use it
Pronoms COD & COI
Replace the noun with le, la, les, lui or leur, in the right slot. Reading a rule and being able to apply it are different skills, and only one of them shows up when you speak.
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Questions
Asked and answered
- How do I remember which verbs take à?
- Learn the verb with its preposition, the way you learn a noun with its article. A short list covers most trouble: parler à, téléphoner à, répondre à, demander à, dire à, écrire à, offrir à, ressembler à, obéir à. All are indirect in French and most look direct in English.
- When does the past participle agree?
- With avoir, only when a direct object comes before the verb, which object pronouns always do. Je les ai vus takes -s. Indirect objects never trigger agreement: je leur ai parlé stays unchanged, whoever they are.
- What about y and en?
- They are object pronouns too, for à + a thing and de + a thing respectively. Je pense à mon travail becomes j’y pense; je parle de mon travail becomes j’en parle. They follow the same before-the-verb rule and sit last in a chain.