French Pronouns Made Easy: A Practical Guide to All 15 Types

Pronouns are the backbone of many languages. Both English and French have this in common. Their primary function is to replace nouns or noun phrases and eliminate repetition in both speech and writing. Once context is established, pronouns step in to keep things flowing quickly. 

Take the following: Instead of “Jack ran” in English, we would say “He ran.” “Jack’s backpack”, would be “his backpack,” and “I went to school” becomes “I went there.” 

In French, there are many different types of pronouns, each of which is dependent on where they fall in a sentence. If you’re interested in moving beyond simply memorizing words and phrases, understanding each type of pronoun can help you better improvise in conversation. Plus, it actually makes conversation easier—your sentences will be simpler, shorter, and far less repetitive. You’ll be able to say more with far less! 

Below, we’ll take a look at pronoun types and provide detailed examples of each. If you’re eager to learn grammar rules in a fun environment—without the memorization—Rosetta Stone has all the tools you need to take your French to the next level. You’ll prepare for real-life conversations with uniquely immersive learning activities and get immediate feedback on your pronunciation in every lesson! 

What are French pronouns?

Pronouns replace nouns and eliminate repetition. Rarely more than 2-3 letters, they’re short and sweet words. The most difficult part about French pronouns is identifying them in speech, since they’re single syllable words and easily blend into longer sentences. You may even be tempted to gloss over them when reading or writing in French, but be warned! Pronoun usage can absolutely make or break a sentence. 

There are French subject pronouns that are easily recognizable: 

• je
• tu
• il / elle / on
• nous
• vous
• ils/elles 

And there are other pronouns you may be familiar with like: 

• moi
• toi
• lui
• eux
• son / sa / ses
• me
• te
• se

It’s important to remember that French pronouns are used as much more than replacements for subjects and objects. That’s why there are 15 types! French pronouns, like their English counterparts, represent nouns in all of the forms a noun takes in a sentence, whether that be as a subject, object, possessor, an “everybody”, or a “nobody”. 

The 15 different types of French pronouns

There are 15 different types of pronouns, which means there are 15 different ways that nouns/pronouns can be placed in a sentence. You may see some repetition between the actual pronouns used—me is both a direct and indirect object pronoun—but the function is different. 

Mastering pronouns takes practice, so don’t expect to understand this entire list on your first read! Making mistakes in real-life conversations is the best way to commit pronouns to memory. It will all come more naturally than you think! 

Personal pronouns in French

There are two categories to which the various sets of French pronouns belong: personal and impersonal. 

A personal pronoun is a pronoun used to designate a person (animals included). In English, we would use you, I, me, you, she, or her. 

French grammar supplies plenty of ways to represent the person in question without endlessly repeating their name each time we wish to speak of them. We will first look at the different sets within the broad category of personal pronouns, beginning with subject pronouns.

French subject pronouns

A subject pronoun is one that is used as a subject in a sentence. The subject of a sentence is the noun that produces the action of the verb. Take this example: 

I walked to the store today.

 “I” is the subject engaged in the verb “walked”. Here’s another one: 

Il va au supermarché. = He is going to the supermarket.

Here, il, or “he” is the subject that engages in the verb va (go). Notice how the English translation is “he” and not “him.” “Him” is an object in English, rather than a subject. Understanding these distinctions in our own language helps us understand them better in another.

French	English
je	you
tu	you (informal
il/elle/on	he/she/one
nous	we
vous	you (formal/plural)
ils/elles	they (masc./fem.)

Note the distinction in the following examples: 

On est responsable de tous les dégâts. 

You (impersonal, hypothetical “one”) are responsible for all the damages.

In French on may mean the impersonal or hypothetical “one”  or “you”, as in the sentence “one (you) should wash one’s (your) hands after using the restroom.” It can also function as “we” and “they”.

Ils font trop de bruit! = They are making too much noise!

French direct object pronouns

Direct object pronouns are, as their name suggests, pronouns that are used as direct objects in a sentence. An object is the noun that receives the action of the verb. “Direct” means that there are no prepositions or other objects that come between it and the verb. Take this example:

I love her. 

Her is a direct object, as it is the receiver of the act of “loving” and has no other objects to compete with that also receive this action. In French:

Je l’aime.

L’ (lowercase l’) is the object. The full pronoun is la to match the grammatical gender of the direct object, but we’re using the contracted version here to eliminate the side-by-side vowels (la aime).

You might be wondering why the object comes before, rather than after, the verb. This is a major difference between English and French. In English, objects come after the verb, in French, they come before it. So, our brains must think a little differently about sentences.

It is necessary to note that certain verbs in French automatically render certain pronouns as direct objects. For example, in the sentence:

Je le cherche. = I’m looking for him. 

In English “him” is an indirect object. But in French, the verb “chercher” does not have a preposition after it, so any object that receives its action is direct. 

French direct object pronouns

French	English
me	me
te	you (informal)
le/la/les	It (masc./fem.); they
nous	us
vous	you (formal/plural)

Examples: 

Je les adore. = I adore them.

Note how the gender of the noun that les represents doesn’t affect its form. Whether it’s a group of masculine or feminine nouns, it all gets grouped into les.

Tu m’étonne! = You shock me!

As always, when the word that follows begins with a vowel, we eliminate the vowel at the end of the pronoun and replace it with an apostrophe.

French indirect object pronouns

Indirect object pronouns are like direct ones, only they aren’t the first to receive the action of the verb. These pronouns are objects that also receive a verbs action, but share it with others. In some cases, these are objects that are simply preceded by a preposition. 

I’m giving him the magazine.

Him is the indirect object because, “magazine” is the direct object (the “first in line” if you will) of the verb “giving”. “Him” is an object coming after the one directly receiving the action of the verb, and is thus an indirect object. 

Let’s take a look at this example in French now.

Je lui donne le magazine.

Notice how the same rule plays out for the direct object (le magazine) and the indirect object (lui, “him”). Note that in this example, donner is one of several verbs in which the preposition à is always built in or implied. In that sense, the object pronoun will always be indirect when used with this verb. 

Take a look at the table below for a list of French verbs that have à built in!

French indirect object pronouns

French	English
me	me
te	you (informal)
lui	him/her/it
nous	we
vous	you (formal/plural)
leur	them (both masc./fem.)

French verbs ending in à

French	English
assister à	to attend
demander à	to ask
dire à	to say
écouter à	to listen
écrire à	to write
jouer à	to play
obéir à	to obey
manquer à	to miss (someone/sth.)
penser à	to think (about s.o./sth.)
plaire à	to please
réfléchir à	to reflect on s.o./sth.
répondre à	to respond to
ressembler à	to resemble
réussir à	to succeed
téléphoner à	to call (via telephone)

Examples: 

• Je lui parle du concert. = I’m talking to him about the concert.
• Nous leur enseignons l’histoire mondiale au lycée = We teach them World History in high school.

French prepositional object pronouns

In addition to the pronouns in the previous section, there is another group of pronouns that function with prepositions as indirect objects. These are called prepositional object pronouns. They can only be indirect objects and, as such, are always preceded by a preposition. 

He is speaking to me! = Il parle à moi!

The moi here is not the same as the subject pronoun je for it is the object of the verb parler, and also necessarily preceded by the preposition à in order to connect the action of the verb parler to its object of moi. Note how this same sentence could be rephrased with the prepositional object as an indirect object pronoun from the table in the last section.

Il me parle. = He is speaking to me.

The prepositional object pronoun moi here has changed its role in the sentence to represent the noun in question as an indirect object instead. This is unique to French and, as you can see, does not translate into English.

In the table below, you’ll notice that some of our personal prepositional object pronouns are the same ones we’ve previously seen as subject, direct object, and indirect object pronouns, like nous and vous.

French	English
moi	me
toi	you (informal)
lui/elle/soi	him/her/one’s
nous	us
vous	you (formal/plural)
eux/elles	them (masc./fem.)

Examples: 

• Les filles sont déçues parce qu’il à rien dit à elles du changement. = The girls are disappointed because he didn’t say anything to them about the change.
• Il a finalement répondu à nous après trois jours! = He finally responded to us after three days!

French reflexive pronouns

If you’ve reviewed the pronoun types above, you should have a solid grasp on what a subject and object is in a sentence. Understanding this is key to wrapping your head around reflexive pronouns! 

Reflexive pronouns are object pronouns whose subject is the same as the object it represents. Another way of describing them would be as object pronouns that reflect their subject. For example: 

He talks to himself a lot. = Il se parle beaucoup.

Notice how, for one, the object “himself” or se in French refers to the same noun as “he” does in the sentence. We wouldn’t be content in saying: 

Il lui parle. = He is talking to him.

Here, the indirect object pronoun lui  or “him” doesn’t communicate the meaning of the subject il (him) talking to himself. The meaning is lost! That’s why we have reflexive pronouns. 

French reflexive pronouns

Again, you will notice certain repetitions from previous categories of pronouns. This is par for the course. 

French	English
me	myself
te	yourself (informal)
se	himself/herself/oneself
nous	ourselves
vous	yourself (formal) yourselves (plural
se	theirselves (masc./fem.)

French reflexive verbs 

Similar to how certain verbs have the built-in preposition of à, rendering their object pronouns indirect, there is also a set of verbs that are always or mostly used with reflexive pronouns. It is common practice to express these verbs in the third person singular form of “S’ + infinitive verb”.

French	English
s’amuser	to have fun
s’appeler	to call (oneself)
s’asseoir	to sit
se baigner	to swim
se coucher	to go to sleep
se dépêcher	to be in a hurry
se lever	to rise
se passer	to happen/to occur/ to pass
s’occuper	to take care of/occupy oneself with
se réveiller	to wake up

Examples:

• Je m’appelle Tom. = My name is Tom. (literally, I call myself Tom.)
• Ils se baignent dans la mèr. = They’re swimming in the ocean. (They themselves are swimming in the ocean.)

Impersonal pronouns in French 

The second category of pronouns are impersonal pronouns, which refer to general objects and persons rather than any specific one like “you” or “them.” Instead, impersonal pronouns might be the English equivalent of words like “these/those” and other times as pronouns of place like “here/there”. Other times they might function as possessive pronouns like “his” or “their”. As with our personal pronouns, we will begin with the subject set first.

Impersonal French subject pronouns 

Impersonal subject pronouns in French are grammatically the same as their personal pronoun counterparts, in that they function as subjects that “initiate” the verb in a sentence. However, as their name suggests, they are impersonal. So, rather than the standard je, tu, and il/elle/on  we have ce and il to designate impersonal expressions or verbs that have no agent.  

It is necessary to do the dishes. = Il faut faire la vaisselle.

In this sentence, the verb falloir (to be necessary to….) is not being initiated by any person, thing, or actor who is responsible for the verb (what’s referred to as “agency”). The subject pronoun Il (it) does not represent any specific person or thing responsible for its verb.

French	English
ce	it
il	it
qui	who

Examples: 

• Il pleut. = It’s raining
• C’est absurde! = That is absurd.
• Qui est à la porte? = Who is at the door?

You’ve probably already come across ce without even noticing it, as it’s featured in many sentences that contain the contraction ce + être = c’est. 

French adverbial pronouns

The two French adverbial pronouns are y and en. They each substitute nouns that would be followed by a preposition. As always, these pronouns are placed before the verb of which they’re an object.

Let’s take a look at the pronoun y. You’ll use y to replace a noun and its preceding preposition when that noun follows any of these four prepositions: 

• à
• en
• dans
• chez

Y represents nouns of place, especially those that someone is going to or spending time at. There is one very common exception though! Y is always used with penser (as in, thinking about something) due to the fact that penser is always followed by à. 

Now, let’s take a look at the pronoun en. You’ll use en to replace a noun and its preceding preposition when that noun is followed by: 

• de

Since there’s only one option, this one is quite easy to remember! En represents someone or something that is from somewhere. It can replace nouns of place like “here” or “there.” It can also be used as a substitute for “about,” as in, “We were talking about the weather.” 

Remember that French uses different prepositions than English—there isn’t always a direct translation between them. We would say, “I think about…” but the French would say, “Je pense à,” using the à preposition that typically translates to “to,” “at,” or “in.” 

All this to say, pay special attention to these rules. Translating directly from English can lead to incorrect grammar! 

Also note that we can not use y or en to replace our indirect object pronouns. For instance, we can not say J’y écris instead of J’écris à lui (I’m writing to him).

Consult the table of verbs ending in de for a complete list of verbs that are compatible with the preposition en.

French adverbial pronouns

French	English
y	To ,at, in (somewhere/something)
en	of, from, about (somewhere/something)

Examples: 

• –Tu vas chez lui cet après-midi? =   Are you going to his house this afternoon?

• Oui, j’y vais.   – Yes, I’m going there.

• Il y a trop de règles! J’en suis fatigué! = There are too many rules! I’m tired of them!

French verbs ending in de  

French	English
avoir besoin de	to need
avoir envie de	to want
jouer de	to play (an instrument)
penser de	to think about (opinion)
profiter de	to take advantage of/make the most of

French relative pronouns

Here is where we will really need our knowledge of what a subject and an object is, as well as verbs in French that have the built in prepositions of à and de. These will help us use the relative pronouns of que, qui, dont, où, and lequel. The table below provides their English translations as well as what prepositions these pronouns can follow in a sentence.
In English we might say: 

• Who are you speaking to?

However, in French we would say something closer to “to whom are you speaking?”

• A qui est-ce que tu parles?

French	English	Prepositions (when used)	Use
qui	who/which/that	Used after à, de, pour, chez, and avec	As in indirect object (usually just people).
que	who/whom/which/that		As a direct object. Followed by a pronoun or noun (never a verb).
dont	that/of which		To replace an object or a person when de is included or following a verb with de.
où	where/when		To refer to a place of location or in time.

French	Used after	Forms
lequel	Sur avec dans pour	lequel  (M.S.)laquelle (F.S.)lesquels (M.Pl.)lesquelles (F.Pl.)
auquel (à + lequel)	à	auquel (M.S.) à laquelle (F.S.)auxquels (M.Pl.)auxquelles (F.Pl.)
duquel (de + lequel)	de	duquel (M.S.) de laquelle (F.S.) desquels (M.Pl.)desquelles (F.Pl.)

Here’s a list of examples that use each relative pronoun: 

• Le magasin qui vient d’ouvrir était soudainement fermé. = The store that just opened was suddenly closed.
• A qui appartient ce portefeuille? = Who does this wallet belong to?
• La voiture que tu as acheté est belle! = The car (that) you bought is beautiful!
• La maison dont je m’occupe est en bon état. = The house that I’m taking care of is in good condition.
• Le jour où tu es venu nous rendre visite était très spécial. = The day (when) you came to visit us was very special. 
• C’est la maison dans laquelle j’ai grandi. = That’s the house I grew up in. (literally “….the house in which I grew up.)

French indefinite pronouns

In French we use indefinite pronouns similarly to English. That is, to refer to persons, places, or things without saying exactly who or what they are. For example: 

You can use them if you want, but certain ones don’t work.

Tu peux les utiliser, mais certains ne fonctionnent pas.

In French there is no extra word needed to reinforce a pronoun like the “ones” does for “certain ones” in English. The pronoun alone will do. It must of course agree in number and adjective with the noun which it describes though, as the table below details.

M.S.	F.S.	M.Pl.	F.Pl.	English
un autre	une autre	d’autres	d’autres	other
certain	certaine	certains	certaines	certain
chacun	chacune	chacuns	chacunes	each
–	–	plusieurs	plusieurs	many
quelque chose	–	–	–	something
quelqu’un	–	–	–	someone
–	–	quelques-uns	quelque-unes	some (people)
quiconque	–	–	–	anyone
personne (ne + V. + personne/ personne + ne + V.)				no one/nobody
tout	–	tous	toutes	all
un	une	–	–	one
l’un	l’une	–	–	one

Take a look at how they’re used in a sentence: 

• Il s’en fout d’autres et c’est pourquoi il n’a personne pour l’ aider. = He doesn’t care about others and that’s why he has no one to help him.
• Regardes! Il n’y a personne! = Look! There’s no one (here)!
• Toutes sont très intelligentes! = All (the girls) are very intelligent!

French possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are ones that indicate possession by someone or something, such as mine, his/her/its, ours, theirs, etc. There is more complexity to this in French than in English though. As we’ll see below:

Her phone isn’t working. = Son portable ne marche pas.

In French, the “his/her” pronoun indicating possession changes form according to the gender of the object possessed, rather than the gender of the possessor. So, in the example above the “her” in the sentence actually takes the masculine singular pronoun son, due to portable being a masculine noun. 

Study the table below, and make sure to remember to pick the appropriate pronoun based on: 

•  Who or what possesses the object (i.e. whether you’re speaking in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person)
• The gender and number of the possessed object

M.S.	F.S.	Pl.(gender irrelevant in plural)	English
mon	ma	mes	my
ton	ta	tes	your (informal)
son	sa	ses	his/her/one’s
notre	notre	nos	our
votre	votre	vos	your
leur	leur	leurs	their

• Bonjour David! Est-ce que tu as reçu ta valise? = Hello David! Did you receive your suitcase?
• Je m’appelle Kimberly et j’y ai laissé mes feuilles. = My name is Kimberly and I left my notes here.
• Son idée est excellente! = His/her idea is excellent!

When the word following the possessive pronoun begins with a vowel, we revert back to the masculine form in the case of singular objects. As in the last example “Son idée est excellente”, idée is in fact a feminine noun, but the fact that it begins with the vowel -E makes us use the masculine singular pronoun of son.

French demonstrative pronouns

If we think of possessive pronouns as being made up of an adjective that possesses a noun (the adjective being the “your” or “her” describing the possession of the noun they possess) then we can think of demonstrative pronouns in a similar way. 

Demonstrative pronouns are made up of an adjective describing a noun, though it’s an adjective describing “this (one)” or “that (one)” particular thing that is either “here” or “there”. It can also just mean the equivalent of “one” in English.

• Which novel would you like to purchase? I’ll buy this one. 
• Quel roman est-ce que tu voudrais acheter? J’achète celui-ci. (gender agreement with the masc. roman)

M.S.	F.S.	Pl.(m.)	Pl. (f.)	English
ce	cette	ces		this/that/these
celui	celle	ceux	celles	this/that/these/those ones

Here are several more examples: 

• En ce qui concerne la maison idéale, je cherche celle qui a assez d’espace pour les gamins.
• Concerning the ideal house, I’m looking for one with enough space for the kids.
  
• Où sont les pommes? Tu te rappelles celles que j’ai achetées! Tout à l’heure? 
• Where are the apples? You remember the ones that I bought earlier?

Note that with celui and ceux it can be used alone with -ci (this one) or là (that one) at the end. 

French indefinite demonstrative pronouns

Indefinite demonstrative pronouns perform a similar function to the definite ones in the section above, however, they don’t describe individual, particular things. Instead, they function as “this” and “that”. There is no plural form, as they describe things that aren’t usually quantifiable.

C’est délicieux = It’s delicious! 

Yes, that is the same “ce” that we say as an indefinite subject pronoun, now appearing as an indefinite demonstrative pronoun!

French	English
ce	it/this/that/these/those
ceci	this
cela	that
ça	this/that

Examples: 

• Cela n’est pas le bon moment pour discuter de ça. = That’s not the right moment to discuss that.
• Est-ce que tu as entendu ceci? = Did you hear that?

French negative pronouns

Negative pronouns are ones that negate other pronouns. For example, the negation of “someone” or “everyone” is “no one”. The negation of “everything” is “nothing”.

None of my colleagues are coming. = Aucun de mes collègues ne vient.

French	English
aucun(e)	none
ne…nul(le)	no one
nulle part	nowhere
ne…personne	no one
ne…quiconque	no one
ne…rien	nothing…not anything

• Rien n’est impossible. = Nothing is impossible.
• On le cherchait, et on ne l’a trouvé nulle part. = We searched for him and couldn’t find him anywhere (OR “…found him nowhere”)

Notice how the structure can be either: 

• negative pronoun + ne + verb 
• ne + verb + negative pronoun

French interrogative pronouns

Finally, our interrogative pronouns! These are relatively simple compared to previous categories, and serve to address interrogative, or, question pronouns. Simply put, they are there to ask “who” and “what”.

What are you doing? Tu fais quoi?

Quoi is typically informal. In the sentence above, the formal phrasing would be “Qu’est-ce que tu fais?”. Quoi can also be used on its own in a sentence like when one says “What!?” in response to not hearing, understanding, or wanting to believe something.

French	English
qui	who
que	what
quoi	what

• Qui est-ce que tu aimes? = Who do you like?
• Que sais-je? = What do I know?

Important French grammar concepts to remember

As we have seen throughout these examples, there are various French grammar rules to keep in mind when applying our knowledge of pronouns. These include gender, number, and formality. 

Applying gender rules to pronouns

As always, we must remember the gender and singularity or plurality of our nouns. Pronouns are no exception to this. 

When we possess a book, we must remember its gender in order to use the correct pronoun of “son” (masc.) rather than “sa” (fem.). 

If we’re restating the same word like “cars” in a sentence and not wanting to repeat this word over and over, we need to use the subject pronoun “elles” because “cars” is feminine and plural.

Formal and informal pronouns

The difference between formality and informality in French is one that applies to all manners of speech, including pronouns. You’ll need to keep this in mind when using: 

• basic subject pronouns (tu, vous)
• reflexive pronouns (te, vous)
• possessive pronouns (ton, ta; tes, votre, vos) 
• direct and indirect object pronouns (te, vous) 
• prepositional object pronouns of (toi, vous)

Knowing when to omit pronouns

Unlike in Spanish, you will rarely see pronouns omitted in French. Since French verb conjugations often sound or look similar, it would make communication quite difficult. For example, if someone were to say: 

(Tu) cherches quoi? = What are (you) looking for?

It would be difficult to know whether the speaker is asking “What are you looking for?” or asking “What is he/she looking for?” due to the pronunciation of (tu) cherches and (il/elle) cherche being identical.

The only time one omits pronouns is in the imperative tense of giving a command.

• Donnes-moi le ball! = Give me the ball!
• Allons-y! = Let’s go!

Is there an easier way to remember French pronouns?

As stated at the beginning, learning pronouns is complicated. However, it’s important not to over analyze them or concern yourself too much with the specifics of each rule. The more exposure you get, the easier it is to demystify them. 

Want to avoid muddling your way through French grammar? Rosetta Stone can help you expand your French knowledge fast—without the tedious memorization. Each lesson pairs words, images, and audio so you can learn French in a fun, immersive environment. Plus, Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent feature can help you perfect your pronunciation from your very first lesson! 

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Written by Micah McCauley

Micah McCauley is a current freelance contributor to Rosetta Stone with years of experience teaching French to non-native speakers. His career spans the U.S., France, and China. He is currently a student and associate instructor of French and Francophone Studies. He enjoys composing music, traveling, and learning Spanish in his free time.