Direct and indirect object pronouns

The two sets, side by side

Only the third person differs — that is the part to drill. Le, la, les replace a noun with no preposition (je vois Marie → je la vois); lui and leur replace à + a person (je parle à Marie → je lui parle).

Which verbs take à (and therefore lui / leur)

English hides the à: "I call him" gives no hint that téléphoner requires it. Learn the common à-verbs as a set:

• téléphoner à, parler à, répondre à, écrire à, demander à, donner à, dire à, offrir à
• Je téléphone à mes parents. → Je leur téléphone. — never ❌ je les téléphone
• but voir, aimer, chercher, attendre, écouter take a direct object: *Je **l'*attends. — I'm waiting for him, with no preposition in French.

Note the two-way traps: écouter and attendre are direct in French although English says "listen to" and "wait for"; téléphoner is indirect although English "call" is direct.

Placement, including the negative sandwich

The pronoun stands right before the verb that owns it:

Common mistakes

• ❌ Je vois lui. → ✅ Je le vois. — pronouns do not stay after the verb.
• ❌ Je les téléphone. → ✅ Je leur téléphone. — téléphoner à is indirect.
• ❌ Je le ai vu. → ✅ *Je **l'*ai vu. — le/la elide before a vowel.
• ❌ Je lui aime. → ✅ *Je **l'*aime. — aimer takes a direct object.

Quick answers

Two pronouns at once? The order is fixed — me/te/nous/vous before le/la/les before lui/leur: Il me le donne. Je le lui envoie. Drill one pair at a time.

Does the past participle agree? With a preceding direct object, yes: ces lettres, je les ai écrites. That mechanism has its own B1 lesson.

What about y and en? They replace à/de + a thing rather than a person — covered in y and en.

See them in a real text

In the A2 story Le vélo bleu, watch how the characters stop repeating nouns once they have been introduced — every le, la, lui you spot is this lesson at work.