If you understand the roles nouns (and their accompanying baggage) play in a sentence ...

... you can use pronouns with ease (words like lui, leur, le/la/les, eux and elles) ...

... understand complicated grammatical trickery such as past participle agreement ...

... and write complex sentences using relative pronouns (words like qui and que, lequel, auquel, duquel, dont).

As a result, your French will be ACCURATE, ADVENTUROUS and ATTRACT HIGHER MARKS (A A A !).

We have almost finished with the subject

of object pronouns now. We have

looked at many different ways in which

object pronouns can be used to replace

nouns, in statements, questions and with

imperatives.

To finish off, we need to consider

reflexive verbs.

Reflexive verbs are more properly called

pronominal verbs, because they

automatically come with their own

pronoun.

Examples of pronominal verbs are

› se coucher

› s’arrêter

› s’évanouir

A lot of pronominals are ‘action’ verbs,

involving the action being performed on

the subject of the verb:

› Je me réveille

› Il se promène

› Elle s’habille

› Nous nous ennuyons

These verbs can also be used non-

reflexively, when the action is being

performed on a third party:

› Je réveille les enfants

› Il promène le chien

› Elle habille une poupée

› Nous ennuyons les spectateurs

Note that the ‘third party’ in these cases

is a direct object, which means that the

reflexive pronoun is also a direct object:

› Je promène le chien

› Je me promène

› Nous habillons le bébé

› Nous nous habillons

However, for some pronominal verbs the reflexive pronoun will be an indirect object. These will be verbs that take an indirect object when they are not reflexive (note that the reflexive might mean ‘to oneself’ or ‘to each other’):

› Téléphoner à quelqu’un : ils se téléphonent

› Écrire à quelqu’un : nous nous écrivons

› Faire mal à quelqu’un : je me suis fait mal

› Demander à quelqu’un : elle s’est demandé.

Identify whether the underlined reflexive pronoun is a

direct object (COD) or an indirect object (COI)

1. Ils aiment se laver dans la douche après dîner.

2. Nous nous sommes rencontrés à Paris.

3. À Noël, ils s’envoient toujours des cadeaux.

4. Mes deux amies se sont téléphoné à plusieurs reprises.

5. Jean s’était garé devant la poste.

6. Les prisonniers se sont parlé par le trou de la serrure.

1. Ils aiment se laver dans la douche après dîner.

› Laver QUELQUE CHOSE = a COD.

2. Nous nous sommes rencontrés à Paris.

› Rencontrer QUELQU’UN = a COD.

› Incidentally, à Paris is a CC (behaves like an adverb – tells

you ‘where’ the verb took place)

3. À Noël, ils s’envoient toujours des cadeaux.

› Envoyer à QUELQU’UN = a COI

4. Mes deux amies se sont téléphoné à plusieurs

reprises

› Téléphoner à QUELQU’UN = a COI (which is why there is no

agreement on the past participle téléphoné; the past

participle of a reflexive verb only agrees with a preceding

COD).

› Incidentally, à plusieurs reprises is a CC (behaves like an

adverb – tells you ‘when’ the verb took place)

5. Jean s’était garé devant la poste.

› Garer QUELQUE CHOSE = COD. So a feminine COD would

produce ‘Jeanne s’était garée’.

› Incidentally, devant la poste is a CC (behaves like an

adverb – tells you ‘where’ the verb took place)

6. Les prisonniers se sont parlé par le trou de la serrure. Parler à QUELQU’UN = a COI (which is why there is no

agreement on the past participle parlé).

You should now have a basic understanding of

what a reflexive (pronominal) verb is. You should

also be able to tell the difference between

reflexive pronouns that are direct objects and

reflexive pronouns that are indirect objects, even

those these look the same!

For those interested in learning more on this topic,

there follow another couple of Aim Higher slides.

Pronominal verbs will sometimes be accompanied by

a second pronoun. In that case, the usual rules for

word order will apply (see the next slide for a

reminder, but remember that the order will be

different for positive imperatives).

1

Me 2

3

Te Le 4

Lui 5

Se La Y En

Leur

Nous Les

Vous Put the pronouns you need in the order shown above, 1 before 2, 2 before 3, etc.

Some pronominal verbs come ready made with an EN or an Y:

› s’en aller (to go away, be off)

› s’en retourner (synonym for s’en aller)*

› s’y connaître (to know a lot about something)

› s’y entendre (synonym for s’y connaître)

› il s’en est fallu de peu + subjunctive (to be a close thing):

il s’en est fallu de peu qu’elle gagne (she nearly won, she came very close to winning)

* The verbs with a fixed ‘en’ tend to be movement verbs. Sometimes the ‘en’ is fused with the verb

(s’envoler, s’enfuir).

Other pronominal verbs will require a second pronoun to replace a noun group, in order to avoid repetition:

› Nous nous sommes vus au cinéma. Nous nous y sommes

vus.

› Je ne m’intéresse pas à l’art. Je ne m’y intéresse pas.

› La Grèce ne se sortira pas de cette crise. La Grèce ne s’en sortira pas.

› Elle se fiche de l’avis des voisins. Elle s’en fiche.

Translate into French:

1. Are you going? (use: ‘s’en aller’+ tu)

2. He often walks here (use: se promener)

3. I’ll take care of it (use: s’occuper de)

4. They had fun there (use: s’amuser)

5. We want to get rid of them (use: se débarrasser de)

1. Tu t’en vas? Est-ce que tu t’en vas?

2. Il s’y promène souvent.

3. Je m’en occupe.

4. Ils s’y sont amusés. Elles s’y sont amusées.

5. Nous voulons nous en débarrasser.

There are occasionally circumstances where it is

impossible to combine two pronouns before a

verb (all verbs, not just reflexives).

These circumstances are covered in detail in the

AIM HIGHER section of slideshow 8 (Replacing

nouns (4) - More than one pronoun).