Tertia unitas – Thema II Tiempo aproximado: seis horas

• First person singular (I, me) - Je, moi

• Second person singular (you) - Vous (polite), Tu (informal, well-known

acquaintances only)

• Third person singular (he, she) - Il (male), Elle (female), On (indeterminate) • First person plural (we) - Nous

• Second person plural (you) - Vous

• Third person plural (them) - Ils (male), Elles (female)

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The pronoun on

The subject pronoun on is analogous to the English personal pronoun one, except that it is not so formal, and is more common. It has a number of uses:

• It is used in the same ways as the English personal pronoun one:

• It is used in expressing generalities: « C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeur. » ("It is

by blacksmithing that one becomes a blacksmith.")

• It is the implicit subject for an infinitive that has no other implicit subject: « penser

qu'on a raison » ("to think that one is right," i.e. "to think oneself right").

• Because of French's limited passive voice, it is often used as an empty subject when the agent is

unknown or unimportant: « On me l'a donné. » ("[On] gave it to me" or "I was given it" or "It was given to me.")

• It is used as a less formal substitute for the subject pronoun nous (we). In this case, note that

even though on always takes a third-person singular verb, it takes plural adjectives (« On est américains », "We're American"). Also, note that the other forms of nous (direct object, indirect object, and disjunctive) are not replaced by forms of on unless on is the subject as well. (Hence, « Ils nous l'ont donné », "They gave it to us," but « On se l'est donné », "We gave it to

ourselves.")

• It is not the number 1, and therefore is not used to mean "one of them." In French as in English,

numbers can be used as pronouns — « Deux sont entrés et un est ressorti », "Two went in and one came back out" — but the number 1 is un(e), not on.

On does not have ordinary direct- and indirect-object pronouns, only the reflexive pronoun se.

Similarly, its disjunctive-pronoun form, soi, is only used when on is the subject and soi refers to the same entity. The pronoun quelqu'un ("someone") can fill some of the roles of on, in the same way that

me, te, nous, and vous

• Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

Meanings

• me - me, to me

• te - you, to you (singular, informal) • lui - to him

• nous - us, to us

• vous - you, to you (plural, formal) • leurs - to them

Place in sentences

• These pronouns are placed before the verb that they modify • Je te vois. - I see you.

• Je veux te voir. - I want to see you.

• If a perfect tense is used, these pronouns go before the auxillary verb. • Je t'ai vu. - I saw you.

Direct Object Replacement

• Il me voit. - He sees me. • Il te voit. - He sees you. • Il nous voit. - He sees us. • Il vous voit. - He sees you.

Indirect Object Replacement

• Il m'appelle. - He calls to me. • Il te le jette. - He throws it to you. • Il nous le jette. - He throws it to us. • Il vous le jette. - He throws it to you.

le, la, and les

le, la, and les are called direct object pronouns, because they are pronouns that are, you guessed it, used

as direct object. A direct object is a noun that receives the action of a verb.

• Il jette la boule. - He throws the ball.

You have learned earlier that names and regular nouns can be replaced by the subject pronouns (je,

tu...). Similary, direct objects, such as "la boule", can be replaced by pronouns.

• le - replaces a masculine singular direct object • la - replaces a feminine singular direct object • l' - replaces le and la if they come before a vowel

• les - replaces plural direct objects, both masculine and feminine

The direct object pronouns come before the verb they are linked to.

• Il la jette. - He throws it. • Il les jette. - He throws them.

lui and leur

Indirect objects are prepositional phrases with the object of the preoposition An indirect object is a noun that receives the action of a verb.

• Il jette la boule à Jacques. - He throws the ball to Jack. • Il jette la boule à Marie. - He throws the ball to Mary.

• Il jette la boule à Jacques et Marie. - He throws the ball to Jack and Mary.

Lui and leur are indirect object pronouns. They replace nouns referring to people and mean to him/her

and to them respectively.

• lui - replaces a singular masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human • leur - replaces a plural masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human

An example follows:

• Il lui jette la boule. - He throws the ball to him. • Il lui jette la boule. - He throws the ball to her. • Il leur jette la boule. - He throws the ball to them.

Whether lui means to him or to her is given by context.

In English, "He throws him the ball" is also said, and means the same thing.

When used with the direct object pronouns le, la, and les, lui and leur come after those pronouns.

• Il la lui jette. - He throws it to him.

Note that while le, la, and les are used to replace people or inanimate objects, lui and leur are not used to replace innanimate objects and things.

Also note that unlike le and la, which are shortened to l' when followed by a vowel, lui is never shortened

y

Indirect Object Pronoun - to it, to them

• Je réponds aux questions. - J' y réponds. • I respond to the questions. - I respond to them.

Note that lui and leur, and not y, are used when the the object refers the a person or persons.

Replacement of Places - there

The French pronoun y replaces a prepositional phrase referring to a place that begins with any preposition except de (for which en is used).

• Les hommes vont en France. - Les hommes y vont. • The men go to France - The men go there.

Note that en, and not y is used when the object is of the preposition de.

Idioms

• Ça y est! - It's Done! • J'y suis! - I get it!

en

Replacement of a Partitive Construction