Indirect Object Pronouns in French

In Brief

French uses me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur to replace a person introduced by à after many common verbs: Je parle à Léa becomes Je lui parle (“I’m talking to her”). The pronoun normally comes before the verb, and lui can mean “to him” or “to her,” while leur means “to them.”

Overview

An indirect object is a person connected to a verb through a preposition—usually à in French. In Paul donne le dossier à Inès, the dossier is the thing directly affected by the action, while Inès is the recipient. French grammar calls à Inès a complément d’objet indirect, often shortened to COI.

Instead of repeating that person’s name, French commonly uses an indirect object pronoun: Paul lui donne le dossier. This small change is essential in everyday speech. It appears whenever people talk to, write to, telephone, answer, tell, lend, show, or give something to someone.

The basic pattern is introduced at A1: identify à + person, choose the matching pronoun, and put it before the verb. English-speaking learners need to pay attention to the French construction rather than translate word for word. English can say “I call Emma” without “to,” but French says Je téléphone à Emma and therefore Je lui téléphone.

How It Works

The six pronouns

Person replaced	French pronoun	Typical English meaning	Example
à moi	me / m’	to me	Il me répond.
à toi	te / t’	to you (singular, informal)	Je t’écris.
à lui / à elle	lui	to him / to her	Nous lui parlons.
à nous	nous	to us	Elle nous téléphone.
à vous	vous	to you (plural or formal)	Je vous montre la salle.
à eux / à elles	leur	to them	On leur donne les clés.

Me and te become m’ and t’ before a vowel sound or a silent h: Il m’écrit; Je t’explique. The other forms do not change before a vowel.

Two forms deserve special attention:

• lui is singular and does not show gender. Je lui parle can mean “I’m talking to him” or “I’m talking to her.” Context supplies the answer.
• leur is plural and never takes an -s when it is a pronoun: Je leur réponds. Do not confuse it with the possessive forms leur and leurs (“their”).

Start from the French verb pattern

The safest question is not “Does English use to?” but “Does this French verb take à quelqu’un?” Here, quelqu’un means “someone.” Common patterns include:

French construction	Meaning
parler à quelqu’un	to talk to someone
téléphoner à quelqu’un	to call someone
écrire à quelqu’un	to write to someone
répondre à quelqu’un	to answer someone
dire quelque chose à quelqu’un	to tell someone something
donner / montrer / prêter quelque chose à quelqu’un	to give / show / lend someone something
demander quelque chose à quelqu’un	to ask someone something

To replace the person, remove the entire à + person phrase:

1. Je téléphone à mon père.
2. à mon père is one singular person, so choose lui.
3. Put it before the verb: Je lui téléphone.

A sentence may keep the thing while replacing the person: Elle montre les photos à ses amis becomes Elle leur montre les photos. Here, les photos remains the direct object (the thing shown), and leur replaces the recipients.

Position before a conjugated verb

In an ordinary statement, the pronoun comes immediately before the conjugated verb (the verb form that changes for the subject or tense):

• Je te parle. — I’m talking to you.
• Elle nous écrit souvent. — She often writes to us.
• Vous leur donnez le menu. — You give them the menu.

With a negative, ne ... pas surrounds the pronoun and verb together:

• Je ne lui réponds pas. — I’m not answering him/her.
• Ils ne nous téléphonent jamais. — They never call us.

In the spoken language, ne is often omitted, but the pronoun stays in the same place: Je lui réponds pas. Learners should retain ne in careful writing.

With an infinitive

An infinitive is the unchanged dictionary form of a verb, such as parler or écrire. When the indirect object belongs to an infinitive, put the pronoun directly before that infinitive:

• Je vais lui parler. — I’m going to talk to him/her.
• Nous voulons leur écrire. — We want to write to them.
• Tu peux me répondre demain. — You can answer me tomorrow.

This placement reveals which action the person belongs to. In Je veux lui parler, lui is the person addressed by parler, not by vouloir.

With compound tenses

In a compound tense such as the passé composé, put the pronoun before the auxiliary (avoir or être):

• Je lui ai téléphoné hier. — I called him/her yesterday.
• Elle nous a écrit. — She wrote to us.
• Nous leur avons répondu. — We answered them.

An indirect object does not cause the past participle (a form such as parlé or écrit) to agree. Write Je leur ai parlé regardless of the recipients’ number or gender.

Commands

A positive command changes the usual order. Put the pronoun after the verb with a hyphen:

• Téléphone-lui ! — Call him/her!
• Écrivez-leur ! — Write to them!
• Donne-moi le reçu ! — Give me the receipt!

In positive commands, me and te become moi and toi: Réponds-moi; Prépare-toi. With a negative command, return the pronoun to its normal position and use me/te:

• Ne lui téléphone pas ! — Don’t call him/her!
• Ne me donne pas ça ! — Don’t give me that!

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
Je te parle.	I’m talking to you.	te replaces à toi.
Il lui téléphone après le travail.	He calls him/her after work.	lui is singular and has no gender.
Elle nous écrit chaque semaine.	She writes to us every week.	nous comes before the verb.
Je leur donne le livre.	I give them the book.	The recipients are plural.
Vous me montrez votre passeport ?	Will you show me your passport?	me is the person receiving the information.
On lui demande son adresse.	We ask him/her for an address.	demander quelque chose à quelqu’un.
Tu ne me réponds jamais.	You never answer me.	The pronoun stays inside the negative structure.
Nous allons leur envoyer un message.	We’re going to send them a message.	leur belongs before the infinitive envoyer.
J’ai prêté mon vélo à Zoé, mais elle ne me l’a pas rendu.	I lent my bike to Zoé, but she didn’t give it back to me.	me is indirect; l’ replaces the bike.
Est-ce que je peux vous poser une question ?	May I ask you a question?	vous can be formal singular or plural.
Dis-lui la vérité.	Tell him/her the truth.	Positive command: pronoun after the verb.
Ne leur dites rien.	Don’t tell them anything.	Negative command: pronoun before the verb.
Mes voisins sont très gentils ; je leur parle souvent.	My neighbors are very nice; I often talk to them.	A plural noun phrase becomes leur.

Common Mistakes

Choosing the pronoun from the English sentence

• Wrong: Je la téléphone tous les soirs.
• Right: Je lui téléphone tous les soirs.
• Why: French uses téléphoner à quelqu’un. That person is indirect even though English says “call her” without “to.”

Using lui for more than one person

• Wrong: Je lui écris for à mes parents.
• Right: Je leur écris.
• Why: lui replaces one person; leur replaces two or more people.

Adding a plural ending to leur

• Wrong: Je leurs parle.
• Right: Je leur parle.
• Why: The object pronoun leur is invariable—it never changes form. Leurs exists only as a possessive determiner before a plural noun, as in leurs amis (“their friends”).

Leaving à before the pronoun

• Wrong: Je à lui donne le billet.
• Right: Je lui donne le billet.
• Why: The unstressed pronoun lui replaces the whole phrase à lui / à elle and goes before the verb. The original à disappears.

Putting the pronoun after an ordinary verb

• Wrong: Elle écrit nous demain.
• Right: Elle nous écrit demain.
• Why: Outside positive commands, these object pronouns normally precede the relevant verb.

Treating every person after a verb as indirect

• Wrong: Je lui écoute.
• Right: Je l’écoute.
• Why: Écouter quelqu’un has no à, so the person is a direct object (the person or thing directly affected). The same warning applies to regarder quelqu’un and attendre quelqu’un.

Usage Notes

French often uses an indirect pronoun where English offers two possible structures. Both “I give Marie the key” and “I give the key to Marie” correspond to Je donne la clé à Marie, then Je lui donne la clé. Do not try to copy the English word order.

Vous carries the same social meaning here as the subject pronoun vous. It can address several people or one person formally: Je vous envoie le contrat, Madame. Te is only for one person addressed informally.

Although these pronouns frequently correspond to “to someone,” English “for someone” is not an automatic signal. French may use pour + stressed pronoun instead: Ce cadeau est pour elle (“This gift is for her”). Learn the expression used by the French verb rather than attaching a COI pronoun to every recipient or beneficiary.

Context usually makes the gender of lui clear. If contrast matters, French can keep or add a stressed phrase: Je parle à elle, pas à lui (“I’m talking to her, not to him”). That is a special contrastive structure, not the neutral everyday replacement pattern.

Beyond the Basics: Pronoun Choice and Order

You do not need to master all of the following at A1, but these patterns explain forms you will meet later.

Not every à + person becomes lui or leur

With many verbs, especially verbs of communication or transfer, lui/leur is natural: lui parler, leur donner. Some other verbs keep à and use a stressed pronoun—moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles—instead of a COI pronoun. Important examples include:

• penser à elle — to think about her
• tenir à eux — to care about them / be attached to them
• faire attention à lui — to pay attention to him
• songer à elle — to think of her

Therefore, Je pense à elle is standard; Je lui pense is not. This is another reason to learn a verb together with its usual complement pattern.

When à introduces a thing rather than a person, French often uses y: Je réponds à la question → J’y réponds. The beginner contrast is useful: lui/leur usually stand for people, while y commonly stands for à + thing or place. There are lexical exceptions, so actual verb usage remains important.

Two object pronouns together

A sentence can contain both a direct object and an indirect object. The order is fixed; it is not copied from English:

• Je donne le livre à Luc. → Je le lui donne.
• Elle montre les photos à ses amis. → Elle les leur montre.
• Il me rend la clé. → Il me la rend.

Before an ordinary verb, me, te, se, nous, vous come before le, la, les, but le, la, les come before lui, leur. This produces sequences such as me le, nous la, le lui, and les leur.

Positive commands have their own order: Donne-le-lui ! (“Give it to him/her!”) and Donnez-le-moi ! (“Give it to me!”). Treat this as a later-stage word-order pattern rather than part of the first A1 rule.

Repetition for emphasis or clarification

Careful French normally avoids simply stating a neutral noun phrase and its pronoun as if both were required: Je lui parle already replaces à Paul. In speech, however, a detached phrase can clarify the topic or create contrast: À Paul, je ne lui parle plus. This is marked and emphatic—roughly “Paul, I don’t speak to him anymore”—not the basic model learners should copy in every sentence.

Practice Tips

1. Learn verbs with their companion phrase. Write téléphoner à quelqu’un, not just téléphoner. Then make one noun sentence and one pronoun sentence: Je téléphone à Nora → Je lui téléphone.
2. Transform by person and number. Take Je donne le café à Marc and replace the recipient with à toi, à Léa, à mes collègues, and à vous. Say the resulting sentences aloud: Je te donne..., Je lui donne..., Je leur donne..., Je vous donne....
3. Practice placement in sets of three. Use one idea as a statement, a negative, and a command: Tu lui réponds; Tu ne lui réponds pas; Réponds-lui ! This makes the command exception easier to remember.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subject Pronouns — identify who performs the action before choosing the pronoun for the person receiving or being addressed by it.