The Personal Direct Object Pronouns

The Personal Pronouns Direct Object replace words that have the function of a direct object in the sentence.

Study the following example:

Maxime arrose-les fleurs de son jardin.
Maxime waters the flowers of his garden.
Maxime les arrose.
Maxime waters them.

“Maxime” is the subject
“arrose” is the verb
“les fleurs de son jardin” is the direct object and it answers the question: “Il arrose quoi?”

“les” replaces “les fleurs de son jardin”. As you can see, the personal pronoun direct object “les” comes before the verb. The personal pronoun direct object always comes before the verb except when the verb is in the imperative. In this case, the personal pronoun direct object comes after the verb.

For example:

Arrose les fleurs, s’il te plait!
Water the flowers, please!
Arrose-les, s’il te plait!
Water them, please!

Personal Direct Object Pronouns
1st person singular	me
2nd person singular	te (when you’re addressing a friend, family, or a child)
3rd person singular feminine	la
3rd person singular masculine	le
2nd person plural	vous (when you’re addressing more than one person or an adult person who is not a friend, family or a child)
3rd person plural (masculine and feminine)	les

When the verb that follows the personal pronoun starts with a vowel, we drop the final vowel of the personal pronoun object and replace it with an apostrophe. It’s called “elision”.

For example:

Il ouvre la porte doucement.
He opens the door slowly.
Il l’ouvre doucement.
He opens it slowly.

Nous aimons notre fille si fort!
We love our daughter so much!
Nous l’aimons si fort!
We love her so much!

The Personal Pronouns Direct Objects used with the passé composé:

There are three points to consider when we use personal pronouns direct objects with the passé composé:

1. The personal pronoun direct object always comes between the subject and the auxiliary “avoir” and if the following adverbs are used, they are placed between the auxiliary “avoir” and the past participle: complétement, souvent, rarement, toujours, bien etc....
2. Because the personal pronoun object always precedes the verb when used with the passé composé, then the direct object agrees with the past participle.
3. We use the “elision” for all verbs with the passé composé because all forms of the auxiliary “avoir” start with a vowel.

For example:

J’ai pris ma fille avec moi à la fête foraine.
I took my daughter with me to the fair.
Je l’ai prise avec moi à la fête foraine.
I took her with me to the fair.

Il a complètement oublié ses deux amies.
He completely forgot about his two friends.
Il les a complètement oubliées.
He completely forgot about them.

Les douaniers nous ont bien fouillés à l’aéroport Orly.
The customs officers searched us carefully at Orly Airport

The negative form and the interrogative form:

Negative form:

The personal pronoun direct object is placed between “ne” and the verb or the auxiliary in the case of the passé composé.

Il n’a pas aidé sa soeur quand elle a déménagé.
He didn’t help his sister when she moved.
Il ne l’a pas aidée quand elle a déménagé.
He didn’t help her when she moved.

Aline n’invite jamais sa mère aux fêtes qu’elle organise en été.
Aline never invites her mother to the parties she organizes in the summer.
Aline ne l’invite jamais aux fêtes qu’elle organise en été.
Aline never invites her to the parties that she organizes in the summer.

Interrogative form:

In the “est-ce que” form the rule is the same as the positive form. We just add “est-ce que” to the sentence:

For example:

Est-ce qu’il mange ?
Does he eat fish?
Est-ce qu’il le mange?
Does he eat it?

When we use the formal inversion to ask questions, the personal pronoun direct object is put in the beginning of the question.

For example:

Avez-vous écrit les lettres que je vous ai demandé d’écrire?
Did you write the letters I asked you to write?
Les avez-vous écrites?
Did you write them?

Retrouvera-t-elle sa liberté?
Will she get back her freedom?
La retrouvera-t-elle?
Will she get it back?