French 8: Pronouns aka A Ten Year Journey

On is a versatile and ubiquitous French indefinite subject pronoun. Francophones usually say on to refer to "us", "them", or one or more unidentified persons. On is always masculine and third-person singular, which is why conjugation charts often list il/elle/on together.

Direct Object Pronouns

English	Direct Object
me	me
you (sing.)	te
him	le
her	la
us	nous
you (plur. or formal sing.)	vous
them	les

Direct object pronouns usually come before their verbs.

En

The adverbial pronoun en can be used to replace objects introduced by de. For instance, it can replace a partitive article + noun.

En may replace nouns or pronouns in verb constructions that use de, like parler de ("to talk about").

Nouns in adverbs of quantity can also be replaced with en.

Y

The adverbial pronoun y can refer to a previously mentioned or implied place, in which case it's usually translated as "there".

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses, which are subordinate clauses that elaborate upon a previously mentioned noun (the antecedent). Use que when the relative pronoun is the direct object ("whom" in English) and use qui when it's the subject ("who" in English).

Se

A reflexive pronoun like se can be used to indicate that a verb acts upon the subject. Se is used with all third-person subjects, regardless of gender and number.

When se refers to a plural subject, it can also be reciprocal or mutual ("each other").

Certain pronouns can be added to the end of the sentence to differentiate between reflexive and reciprocal uses if necessary.

French has three sets of personal object pronouns: direct object pronouns (from "Pronouns 1"), indirect object pronouns, and disjunctive pronouns.

English	Direct Object	Indirect Object	Disjunctive
me	me	me	moi
you (sing.)	te	te	toi
him	le	lui	lui
her	la	lui	elle
us	nous	nous	nous
you (plur.)	vous	vous	vous
them (masc.)	les	leur	eux
them (fem.)	les	leur	elles

Indirect objects are nouns that are indirectly affected by a verb; they are usually introduced by a preposition.
A personal indirect object pronoun can replace à + indirect object.

Disjunctive pronouns (a.k.a. stressed or tonic pronouns) must be used in certain situations. For instance, only disjunctive pronouns can follow prepositions.

Note that lui can be masculine or feminine when it's an indirect object, but it can only be masculine when it's disjunctive.

For most verbs, personal indirect object pronouns like lui can only refer to people or animals, but you can use the adverbial pronoun y for inanimate things.
Elle ressemble à sa mère. ⇒ Elle lui ressemble. — She resembles her.
Ça ressemble à un robot. ⇒ Ça y ressemble. — It resembles it.

The indefinite adjective quelque ("some") can be combined with pronouns or nouns to create indefinite pronouns. For instance, chose means "thing", so quelque chose means "something".

509	dont	whose	pronoun
510	aucun	none	pronoun
511	tout	all	pronoun
512	chacun/ chacune	each	pronoun
513	autre	other	pronoun
514	n'importe quoi	whatever	pronoun
515	quelqu'un	someone	pronoun
516	le/ la même	the same	pronoun