[Originally posted on 11/16/13 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by DXLi]
I got bogged down by the difference between le and lui, so I figured I’d share the difference to save others some time. Simply put, object pronouns are either for direct objects or for indirect objects.
- A direct object is the thing being acted upon. When you love Bob, Bob is the direct object.
- An indirect object is something you do the action to or for. When you throw a ball to Bob, Bob is the indirect object (and the ball is the direct object). Generally, in English, indirect objects need a preposition while direct objects don’t.
It’s pretty easy once you figure that out. Only the third-person object pronouns change between direct and indirect forms.
- Direct object pronouns: me | te | le/la | nous | vous | les
- Indirect object pronouns: me | te | lui | nous | vous | leur
For instance, in the case of les vs leur, les is a direct object, while leur is an indirect object.
- Direct: “Je les aime” = “I love them“
- Indirect: “Je leur donne la photo” = “I gave the photo to them“
- FYI, lui and leur should only be used for animate objects (people and animals). For anything else, use y.
[http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/directobjects.htm] [http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/indirectobjects.htm]
There are also stressed pronouns (or disjunctive pronouns). These emphasize a pronoun or follow prepositions.
- Stressed pronouns: moi | toi | lui/elle | soi (oneself) | nous | vous | eux/elles.
- Lui/eux are masculine and elle/elles are feminine.
These are more complicated, but are usually used in the following situations:
- Emphasizing a pronoun.
- Affirmative imperative sentences. “Show me” = “montrez-moi”.
- When asking or answering questions.
- After prepositions. “In/to her house” is “chez elle” because chez is a special preposition.
- With emphatic words like aussi. Moi aussi.
[http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pronouns_stressed.htm]
There’s just one more object pronoun: the reflexive pronoun, se. This is used with all third-person pronominal verbs (see link). Reflexive pronouns are the same as direct object pronouns except in the third-person.
- Reflexive pronouns: me / te / se / nous / vous / se
- Se becomes s’ in front of vowels and mute H’s.
Duolinguists 