Pronouns - An Explanation

Andrew Balaam

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Explanation of the roles of elements in a sentence:

Subject:	The subject of the verb is the person or thing (a noun, a pronoun or a name (proper noun)) that does the action of the verb. Example: I talk: “I” do the talking, so I am the subject of the verb “talk”.
Direct Object:	The direct object of the verb is a noun or pronoun that is directly affected by the action of the verb. I use these as examples: Tom eats the apple: Tom is the subject because he does the action of the verb - he does the eating of the apple. The apple is the direct object of the verb, because it is directly affected by the action of eating, so much so that there is not much left by the end! Jack hits Fred. Jack is the subject - he does the hitting. Fred is the direct object and is directly affected by the action - after it happens he feels pain and this affects him directly!
Indirect Object:	The indirect object of a sentence is an noun or pronoun that is indirectly affected by the action of the verb. I use this as an example to make the distinction clear: Sally gives the book to Tina or in shorter English Sally gives Tina the book: Sally does the action of the verb - she hands over the book, so she is the subject. The thing that is directly affected by the action of giving is the book, because it has been moved from one place to another, or it is now in the possession of a different person. Tina is indirectly affected by the action of the verb as she now has a book which she didn’t previously have. She is therefore the indirect object of the verb “give”. In French, “à”, and in English “to” will often lead to an indirect object being used: I spoke to my teacher. J’ai parlé à mon professeur. (there is no direct object here). I spoke to him / her. Je lui ai parlé. (à + noun is replaced here by an indirect object pronoun)
Reflexive:	Reflexive pronouns work with reflexive verbs and reflect the action of the verb back onto the subject: I wash myself. Je me lave.
Emphatic pronouns:	Emphatic pronouns are used in various situations, but are not relevant to this unit, so I will not cover them in detail here.

Table of Pronouns in French:

Subject	Direct Object	Indirect Object	Reflexive	Emphatic
je	me	me	me	moi
tu	te	te	te	toi
il	le	lui	se	lui
elle	la	lui	se	elle
on			se	soi
nous	nous	nous	nous	nous
vous	vous	vous	vous	vous
ils	les	leur	se	eux
elles	les	leur	se	elles

Pyramid of order of direct / indirect Object pronouns:

me le

te la lui y en

nous les leur

vous

Exemples :

Je veux la voir.

Je veux lui parler

Je dois les lui donner

Je veux passer du temps avec elle

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