Direct-object pronouns (me / te / le / la / nous / vous / les)
Summary
Direct-object pronouns (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les) replace the noun directly receiving the action and stand before the conjugated verb, where they can trigger past-participle agreement.
Explanation
A direct object is the noun that directly receives the action, answering 'whom?' or 'what?' after the verb: in je vois Marie, Marie is the direct object. To avoid repeating the noun, French replaces it with a direct-object pronoun. The set is me (me), te (you, informal), le (him/it, masculine), la (her/it, feminine), nous (us), vous (you, plural/formal), and les (them).
The defining feature is position: the direct-object pronoun comes immediately before the conjugated verb, not after it as in English. Je vois Marie becomes je la vois (literally 'I her see'), and tu connais ce film? becomes oui, je le connais. This is the single most common mistake for English speakers, who tend to leave the pronoun after the verb (« je vois la »); in French only a full noun can stay there.
Me, te, le and la elide to m', t', l' before a verb beginning with a vowel or a silent h: je t'aime, il l'invite, elle m'écoute. Note that l' can stand for either le or la, so the gender is hidden in that form. Nous, vous and les never elide, but les triggers a liaison before a vowel (les amis, je les aime, pronounced with /z/).
When there is an infinitive, the pronoun attaches just before that infinitive, because it is the infinitive that governs the object: je veux le voir (I want to see it), tu peux les acheter (you can buy them). In affirmative commands only, the pronoun moves after the verb and is joined with a hyphen, and me/te become moi/toi: regarde-le! (look at it!), écoute-moi! Negative commands keep the normal order: ne le regarde pas.
A practical rule of thumb: identify the noun that answers 'whom/what?', pick the matching pronoun by gender and number, and put it directly in front of the verb that takes the object (the conjugated verb, or the infinitive if there is one). One key consequence in compound tenses: because the pronoun precedes the auxiliary, the past participle then agrees with this preceding direct object — je les ai vus, les lettres que j'ai écrites — which is exactly where many agreement errors hide.
Examples
Tu connais ce film ? Oui, je le connais. — Do you know this film? Yes, I know it. (le replaces the masculine noun film and goes before the verb.)
Je t'invite à dîner. — I'm inviting you to dinner. (te elides to t' before the vowel of invite.)
Ces livres ? Je veux les lire. — These books? I want to read them. (With an infinitive, the pronoun goes before the infinitive lire.)
Ces lettres, je les ai déjà envoyées. — These letters, I have already sent them. (The participle envoyées agrees with the preceding feminine plural object les.)
Regarde-moi ! — Look at me! (Affirmative command: the pronoun follows the verb and me becomes moi.)
Ne le dérange pas. — Don't disturb him. (Negative command: the pronoun keeps its normal place before the verb.)
Common mistakes
Je vois le.
Je le vois.
Unlike English, French does not leave the object pronoun after the verb. The direct-object pronoun (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les) goes immediately before the conjugated verb: « je le vois », not « je vois le ». English word order ("I see it") leads learners to place the pronoun after the verb, but in French only a noun object can sit there — a pronoun moves in front. With an infinitive, the pronoun attaches just before that infinitive: « je veux le voir ».
Prerequisites
Related rules
pronounsword-orderagreementelision