Double Object Pronouns in French

In Brief

When two French object pronouns occur together, they follow a fixed order. Before a verb, use me/te/se/nous/vous + le/la/les + lui/leur + y + en: Je te le donne means “I give it to you.” An affirmative command changes both the position and part of the order: Donne-le-moi ! means “Give it to me!”

Overview

An object pronoun is a short word that replaces a person, thing, place, or phrase affected by a verb. Rather than repeat le dossier (“the file”) and à Léa (“to Léa”), French can replace both: Je le lui envoie (“I send it to her”). These pairs are often called double object pronouns, although combinations can also include the adverbial pronouns y and en.

This A2 topic builds on direct object pronouns. A direct object is the person or thing directly affected by an action, without a preposition: in Je donne le livre, le livre is what is given. An indirect object is connected to the verb through a preposition—often à: in Je donne le livre à Samir, à Samir identifies the recipient. French commonly replaces both objects at once.

English-speaking learners already express the same ideas in sentences such as “She explained it to me.” What feels different is the placement: standard French normally puts the pronouns before the verb and orders them by a grammatical template, not by copying the order of the original nouns or the English translation.

How It Works

Start with the two full objects

Before choosing pronouns, identify what each phrase does:

• Je montre les photos à mes parents. — I show the photos to my parents.
• les photos is direct: Je les montre.
• à mes parents is the recipient: Je leur montre les photos.
• Replace both: Je les leur montre.

This two-step method is safer than trying to guess the finished sentence immediately.

The normal order before a verb

For statements, questions, and negative commands, select the necessary pronouns and place them from left to right in this order:

Position 1	Position 2	Position 3	Position 4	Position 5
me, m'	le, la, l', les	lui, leur	y	en
te, t'
se, s'
nous
vous

You normally use no more than one item from each position. An item farther left comes first:

• te + le → Je te le prête. — I lend it to you.
• les + lui → Nous les lui apportons. — We bring them to him/her.
• nous + en → Elle nous en parle. — She talks to us about it.
• y + en → Il y en a beaucoup. — There are many of them.

The forms me, te, se, le, and la lose their vowel before a vowel sound or mute h: Il me l'a montré; Elle s'en souvient. The apostrophe changes the spelling, not the pronoun’s place in the sequence.

What the pronouns replace

Pronoun	Typical replacement	Example
me, te, se, nous, vous	a direct object or a person linked to the verb, depending on the verb	Il me le dit. — He tells it to me.
le, la, les	a direct person or thing	Je les lui rends. — I return them to him/her.
lui, leur	usually à + person, as recipient or indirect object	Elle le leur explique. — She explains it to them.
y	often à + thing or a place	Je l'y mets. — I put it there.
en	often de + thing, a quantity, or a partitive phrase	Tu m'en donnes ? — Will you give me some?

Do not choose a pronoun from the English translation alone. The French verb determines whether its complement is direct, introduced by à, or introduced by de. For example, écouter quelqu'un is direct (“listen to someone”), while parler à quelqu'un uses à (“speak to someone”).

Statements, questions, and negation

In a simple tense, the pronoun group goes directly before the conjugated verb:

• Je te le donne.
• Elle le lui explique.
• Vous nous en parlez ?

In a negative sentence, ne comes before the pronouns and the other negative word follows the conjugated verb:

• Je ne te le donne pas.
• Elle ne nous en parle jamais.
• Ils ne le leur ont pas envoyé.

In everyday conversation, speakers often omit ne: Je te le donne pas. The pronoun order itself does not change.

Compound tenses

A compound tense uses an auxiliary verb such as avoir or être plus a past participle (a form such as donné, “given”). The pronouns come before the auxiliary:

• Il me l'a dit. — He told me (it).
• Elle le lui a expliqué. — She explained it to him/her.
• Nous les leur avons envoyés. — We sent them to them.

The advanced agreement visible in envoyés is explained below. At A2, first concentrate on placing the pair before the auxiliary.

Infinitives and two-verb constructions

An infinitive is the basic verb form, such as donner (“to give”). When the objects belong to the infinitive, put their pronouns immediately before that infinitive:

• Je vais te le donner. — I am going to give it to you.
• Elle veut le lui expliquer. — She wants to explain it to him/her.
• Pouvez-vous m'en envoyer deux ? — Can you send me two?

The pronouns do not automatically go before the first conjugated verb. Ask which action they complete: in Je veux te le montrer, they are the objects of montrer, not of vouloir.

Affirmative commands: a different order

A positive command places pronouns after the verb, joins them with hyphens, and uses this order:

Verb	First group	Second group	Then
imperative	le, la, les	moi, toi, lui, nous, vous, leur	y, en

Examples:

• Donne-le-moi ! — Give it to me!
• Montrez-la-leur ! — Show it to them!
• Apporte-les-nous ! — Bring them to us!
• Mettez-l'y ! — Put it there!

After an affirmative command, me and te normally become moi and toi. Before en or y, however, they elide to m' and t': Donne-m'en deux ! (“Give me two!”), Va-t'en ! (“Go away!”).

A negative command returns to the normal pre-verb order:

• Ne me le donne pas ! — Do not give it to me!
• Ne la leur montrez pas ! — Do not show it to them!
• Ne m'en parle pas ! — Do not talk to me about it!

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
Je te le donne après le déjeuner.	I’ll give it to you after lunch.	te comes before le.
Il me l'a dit hier soir.	He told me about it last night.	The pair precedes the auxiliary a.
Elle le lui a expliqué calmement.	She explained it to him/her calmly.	Direct le precedes indirect lui.
Nous les leur envoyons par courriel.	We are sending them to them by email.	les precedes leur.
Tu peux me la prêter pour le week-end ?	Can you lend it to me for the weekend?	The pair belongs before prêter.
Le serveur nous en apporte deux.	The waiter brings us two of them.	en replaces the item after a quantity.
Je l'y retrouve à huit heures.	I’ll meet him/her there at eight.	l' is direct; y replaces the place.
Il y en a encore dans le placard.	There are still some in the cupboard.	Fixed and very common y en sequence.
Pourquoi ne le leur as-tu pas montré ?	Why didn’t you show it to them?	Inversion does not disturb the pronouns.
Je ne vous en parlerai plus.	I won’t talk to you about it anymore.	vous precedes en inside negation.
Donne-le-moi, s'il te plaît.	Give it to me, please.	Positive command: after the verb.
Envoyez-les-lui avant midi.	Send them to him/her before noon.	Positive command with two hyphenated pronouns.
Ne me le répète pas.	Don’t repeat it to me.	Negative command: normal order before the verb.
Pourriez-vous m'en réserver trois ?	Could you reserve three of them for me?	The pair goes before the infinitive.

Common Mistakes

Following English word order

• Wrong: Je le te donne.
• Right: Je te le donne.
• Why: Before the verb, te belongs to an earlier position than le. French does not copy “give it to you” word for word.

Putting the pair after an ordinary verb

• Wrong: Elle explique le lui.
• Right: Elle le lui explique.
• Why: Post-verbal pronouns are used in affirmative commands, not in an ordinary statement.

Keeping normal order in a positive command

• Wrong: Donne-moi-le !
• Right: Donne-le-moi !
• Why: A positive command puts le/la/les before moi/toi/lui/nous/vous/leur. This is the reverse of Tu me le donnes.

Using the command order in a negative command

• Wrong: Ne donne-le-moi pas !
• Right: Ne me le donne pas !
• Why: A negative command uses the regular order before the verb; no hyphens join the pronouns to the verb.

Putting pronouns before the wrong verb

• Wrong: Je te le veux montrer.
• Right: Je veux te le montrer.
• Why: The objects belong to montrer. In most verb-plus-infinitive patterns, their pronouns therefore stand before the infinitive.

Choosing lui or leur for every person after à

• Wrong: Je lui pense souvent.
• Right: Je pense souvent à lui.
• Why: Not every à + person phrase becomes lui/leur. With verbs such as penser à, French generally keeps a stressed pronoun after the preposition: à lui, à elle, à eux, à elles. Learn the construction together with each verb.

Usage Notes

Double pronouns are normal in both speech and writing. In conversation, context often makes one object obvious, so speakers may use only one pronoun: Tu donnes le livre à Zoé ? — Oui, je lui donne demain. If both objects are already known, Oui, je le lui donne demain is natural and compact.

Because lui does not show gender, Je le lui donne can mean “I give it to him” or “I give it to her.” Context supplies the difference. Le, la, and les can refer to people or things, while lui and leur in this use normally refer to people or other animate recipients.

French may avoid theoretically possible clusters when they sound heavy or could be unclear. A speaker can repeat one full phrase instead: compare compact Je le lui explique with Je lui explique le problème. Correct pronoun use is not a requirement to replace every available noun.

With en, English translations vary widely: Elle m'en parle may be “She talks to me about it,” while Elle m'en donne may be “She gives me some.” Translate the meaning of the whole construction rather than assigning one fixed English word to en.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master every detail below at A2, but these patterns explain forms you will encounter later.

Past-participle agreement

With compound tenses using avoir, a preceding direct object can trigger agreement on the past participle. The indirect pronoun does not trigger it:

• Les lettres ? Je les lui ai envoyées. — The letters? I sent them to him/her.
• Les documents ? Je les leur ai envoyés. — The documents? I sent them to them.
• À Léa ? Je lui ai parlé. — To Léa? I spoke to her. No agreement: lui is indirect.

Here les refers to lettres (feminine plural) in the first sentence, so envoyé becomes envoyées. This distinction is especially visible in careful writing, even when the extra ending is not pronounced.

Pronouns with causative and perception constructions

Structures with faire (“make/have something done”), laisser (“let”), or perception verbs can make pronoun roles harder to identify: Je le lui fais réparer can mean “I have him/her repair it” in an appropriate context. These constructions deserve separate study because the apparent recipient may instead be the person performing the infinitive. Keep using the core order, but analyse the verb structure before replacing anything.

Literary infinitives after commands

In formal instructions and recipes, an infinitive may function as an impersonal command: Les mélanger puis les y ajouter (“Mix them, then add them to it/there”). Because this is an infinitive rather than an imperative form, pronouns remain before it. Do not apply the positive-imperative order merely because the sentence gives an instruction.

The rare third-pronoun cluster

French grammar permits some longer sequences, especially with y and en, but everyday speech strongly favors clarity. Il m'y envoie (“He sends me there”) has two pronouns; Il y en a is a fixed, frequent sequence. When a three-pronoun cluster feels difficult to process, native speakers often keep one complement as a noun phrase instead. Aim first for natural two-pronoun combinations rather than trying to fill every slot.

Practice Tips

1. Build sentences in two passes. Write a full version—Je montre la photo à Hugo—then replace one object at a time: Je la montre à Hugo → Je la lui montre. This makes each pronoun’s job visible.
2. Contrast statements with commands. Practise pairs aloud: Tu me le donnes / Donne-le-moi ! and Tu ne me le donnes pas / Ne me le donne pas ! The rhythm helps fix the order change.
3. Use a five-slot card. Recreate the pre-verb order from memory, then test it with common combinations such as te le, le lui, nous en, and y en. Focus on useful pairs, not every theoretical combination.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Direct Object Pronouns — learn how me, te, le, la, nous, vous, and les replace one direct object before combining them with another pronoun.