How to Learn Pronouns in French

There are several approaches to learning a foreign language. All with both success and failure depending on the previous pedagogy of the learner. One method is learning important chunks of that language. Here you might be interested in learning pronouns of French language, through this How to.

Steps

Preliminaries

1. Learn French pronounciation. It is recommended to learn French pronunciation at How to Pronounce French Words
2. Learn these French words.
   • Pronoun : pronom (/pro-nom/)
   • Subject : la sujet (/su-jeh/)
   • Subjective : sujetive (/su-jeh/-tiv)
   • Object : objet (/ob-je/)
   • Objective : objetive (/ob-jeh-tiv/)
   • Direct Objective : objetive direct (/di-reh/)
   • Indirect : indiretto (/in-di-ret/)
   • Double : double (/dubl/)
   • Reflexive : réfléchi(/reh-fle-shi/)
   • Relative : relativ (/re-la-tiv/)
   • Possessive : possessive(/pos-ses-siv/)
   • Adjective : adjective(/ajeh-tiv/)
3. Avoid second person singular. A foreign learner should never use a second person singular such as tu, ton, and so on, until he is very comfortable in using French. It could be insulting.
4. French pronouns come in following sections

Subjective Pronouns

1. Learn in Frenchit is called, pronom sujetive. They appear as the subject (sujeh) of the sentence.

1. Singular
   • I : je
     • Pronounced as /zho/
   • You (familiar informal) : tu
     • Pronounced as just /too/
   • He: Il
     • Pronounced as /ill/
   • She: elle
     • Pronounced as /ell/
   • One: on (common for female human and feminine nouns).
     • Pronounced as /bone/
2. Plural
   • We : nous
     • Pronounced as /noo/
   • You (familiar) : vous
     • Pronounced as /voo/
   • They : ils (common for male human and masculine nouns).
     • Pronounced as /ill/
   • They : elles (common for female human and feminine nouns).
     • Pronounced as /ell/

Possessive Adjectives

1. Learn in French it is called, adjectifs possessifs.
2. Learn usage. They modify a noun (nom) to show its owner.
   • Owner could be human or anything.
   • Possessed item could be human or anything.
3. Grammatically they agree in gender and singular/plural with the possessed item not the owner of that item. For example,
   • In English they say "My book" and in plural again "My books", but in French it is said, "mon livre" and "mes livres", respectively.
   • In English they say "His book" and in feminine it changes to "Her book", but in French it is said, "son livre" and "son livre", respectively; both masculine since livre is a masculine (masculin) noun.
4. Learn adjectifs possessifs for masculin singulier possessed items.
   • Usually the definite articles 'le' modifies them.
   • mon: mon livre
   • ton: ton livre
   • son: son livre
   • notre: notre livre
   • votre: votre livre
   • leur: leur livre
5. Learn adjectifs possessifs for masculin pluriel possessed items.
   • Usually the definite articles 'les' modifies them.
   • mes: mes livres
   • tes: tes livres
   • ses: ses livres
   • nos: nos livres
   • vos: vos livres
   • leurs: leurs livres
6. Learn adjectifs possessifs for féminin singulier possessed items.
   • Usually the definite articles 'la' modifies them.
   • ma: ma jupe
   • ta: ta jupe
   • sa: sa jupe
   • notre: notre jupe
   • votre: votre jupe
   • leur: leur jupe
7. Learn adjectifs possessifs for féminin pluriel possessed items.
   • Usually the definite articles 'les' modifies them.
   • mes: mes jupes
   • tes: tes jupes
   • ses: ses jupes
   • nos: nos jupes
   • vos: vos jupes
   • leurs: leurs jupes
8. Note that plural feminin for both genders are the same.

Reflexive Pronouns

1. Learn in French it is called, pronom réfléchi. They are simplest to learn and they are object pronouns. Like objet indirect, they appear as the indirect object (objet) of the sentence. Reflexive pronouns have a different form for Imperative in French.
2. Learn pronom réfléchi for singulier,
   • myself: me
   • yourself : te
   • himself and maculine itself : se
   • herself and feminine itself : se
3. Learn pronome riflessivo for plurale,
   • ourselves : nous
   • yourselves : vous
   • yourselves (polite masculine) : se
   • yourselves (polite feminine) : se
   • themselves (maculine) : se
   • themselves (feminine) : se

Direct Objective Pronouns

1. Learn in Italian it is called, pronome del complemento oggetto. They appear as the direct object (oggetto) of the sentence.
2. Learn complemento oggetto for singolare,
   • me: mi
   • you : ti
   • you (polite) : La
   • him and maculine it : lo
   • her and feminine it : la
3. Learn complemento oggetto for plurale,
   • us : ci
   • you : vi
   • you (polite masculine) : Li
   • you (polite feminine) : Le
   • them (maculine) : li
   • them (feminine) : le
4. This is called complemento since it supplies or completes expectation from the subject of the sentence. For example, "I called ..." will be completed by "her," as "I called her."
5. Learn position of object pronouns in a sentence as,
   • Object pronouns come before a verb.
   • Object pronouns come after the infinitives and attach to their stems as should be learned in more advanced stage than this introductory.
6. Learn rules of elisions. Direct object pronouns before certain verbs contract into those verbs. This is called elision.
   • mi + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Sometimes deforms into m'
   • ti + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Sometimes deforms into t'
   • Lo + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Almost always deforms into L'
   • lo + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Almost always deforms into l'
   • la + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Almost always deforms into l'
   • ci + verbs begin with e or i : Always deforms into c'
   • vi + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Sometimes deforms into v'
   • Li + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Never deforms into L'
   • Le + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Never deforms into L'
   • li + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Never deforms into l'
   • le + verbs begin with a vowel (or h) : Never deforms into l'