Direct Object Pronouns -Les objets directs

It exists in ENGLISH! Yesterday, I found a cat. I took the cat home. I fed the cat. I bathed the cat. I pet the cat. My mom saw the cat. She loved the cat. I kept the cat. I love the cat! I love the cat!

Gets a little old right? Yesterday, I found the cat. I took it home. I fed it. I bathed it. I pet it. My mom saw it. She loved it. I kept it. I love it! I love it!

So what do we do? (without really knowing it?) Instead of repeating “the cat” all the time, we take a short cut and replace “the cat” with “IT” … we just did a direct object pronoun! Woohoo!

The same thing happens in French Hier, j’ai trouvé un chat. J’ai amené le chat chez moi. J’ai lavé le chat. J’ai caressé le chat. Ma mère a vu le chat. Elle aimait le chat. J’ai gardé le chat. J’adore le chat! BERET

Now let’s see what happens when we replace “the cat” with “it” Hier, j’ai trouvé un chat. Je l’ai amené chez moi. Je l’ai lavé. Je l’ai caressé. Ma mère l’a vu. Elle l’aimait. Je l’ai gardé. Je l’adore!

So what happened? “le chat” was replaced with the direct object pronoun “le” *note- if the verb begins in a vowel, use “ l’ “ J’adore le chat. = Je le adore = Je l’adore

What if the noun we are replacing is feminine? Je mange la pomme = Je la mange.

And if it’s plural? J’aime les chats = Je les aime. Je mange les pommes = Je les mange. J’aime les chats = Je les aime.

So let’s get it all together. Masculine nouns will be replaced with - LE Feminine nouns will be replaced with - LA ANYTHING plural will be replaced with - LES

Look and try ‘em out! Est-ce que tu la vois? Nous les aimons. Il ne les adore pas. Elle le mange. Vous la regardez. Est-ce que tu vois la fleur? Nous aimons les bananes. Il n’adore pas les jeux vidéos. Elle mange le fromage. Vous regardez la télévision.

Je vois la fleur. Je la vois. Now let’s see what happens step-by-step. In the original sentence, where is the noun? In the new sentence, where is the direct object pronoun? 95% of the time, this will hold true!

“RULES” The noun to be replaced will 95% of the time immediately follow the verb. (Je vois la fleur) The direct object pronoun will ALWAYS go directly in front of the verb. (Je la vois.)

Tricky tricky… Je vois les roses au parc à midi. Find the noun and circle it! Now, replace it with your direct object pronoun! Je les vois au parc à midi.

Avec l’infinitif When you have a 2 verb sentence, the direct object pronoun goes in front of the infinitive – the verb of action Je vais regarder le match de foot ce week-end. Je vais le regarder ce week-end.