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B1 · Grammaire11 / 12
La double pronominalisation
Two pronouns before the verb — me le, te la, le lui, nous les…
What you’ll learn
When a sentence has both a direct object (le, la, les) AND an indirect object (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur) pronoun, both go before the verb in a specific order. This is one of the trickiest points of French grammar, but following the order rule makes it manageable.
Explanation
The order rule
When two pronouns appear before the verb, they follow this fixed order:
| Position 1 | Position 2 | Position 3 | Verb |
|---|---|---|---|
| me / te / se / nous / vous | le / la / les | verb | |
| le / la / les | lui / leur | verb |
Simple rule: me/te/nous/vous come FIRST. But with lui/leur, le/la/les come FIRST. 'Il ME LE donne' but 'Il LE LUI donne'.
Examples
See how the two pronouns stack before the conjugated verb.
- Il me le donne. — He gives it to me. (me + le)
- Je te la prête. — I'm lending it to you. (te + la)
- Elle le lui explique. — She explains it to him/her. (le + lui)
- Nous les leur envoyons. — We're sending them to them. (les + leur)
In compound tenses and negation
Both pronouns go before the helper verb. In negation, ne goes before the pronouns.
- Il me l'a donné. — He gave it to me.
- Je ne te le dirai pas. — I won't tell you (it).
- Elle le lui a expliqué. — She explained it to him.
Practice · 4 exercises
1
« Il donne le livre à Marie. » → « Il ___ donne. »
2
Tu me prêtes ta voiture ? → Tu ___ prêtes ?
3
In which order do the pronouns go?
4
Replace both objects with pronouns
Elle explique la leçon aux élèves. →