Indefinite personal pronouns in French. Pronouns in French: les pronoms. Functions of personal pronouns in French

Today we will talk about the indefinite personal pronoun On in French. In French it has a special meaning, as it greatly simplifies speech and saves time.

The pronoun On can replace other pronouns or names, which is why the French love to use it in speech.

How and where to use the pronoun On?

The pronoun On is used when the speech does not indicate the person performing the action (in Russian in this case there is no subject). After this pronoun, the verb is used in the third person singular:

• On parle - They say.
• On peut. - Can.
• On voit. - It is seen.
• On ne fume pas ici. - HereNotsmoke.
• On dit que vousê tes millionnaire. - They say, WhatYoumillionaire.
• On chante magnifique. - Wonderfulsing.

The pronoun On can be used instead of personal pronouns - je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles.

On instead of je is used (rather rarely) in university essays and dissertations:

• On tente d’aborder le problème…. (jetent). - I'm trying to address the problem...
• On est conscient de la difficulté de... (je suis conscient). - I understand the complexity...

On instead of tu is used when addressing children or when we are in doubt about addressing “you” or “you”:

• Alors, mon petit, on a bien mangé? (tuasbienmange). - So, my little one, did you eat well?
• Eh bien, mon enfant, on a été sage aujourd'hui? - So, childmy, YouwasobedientToday?

On instead of il, elle (meaning “quelqu’un – someone”):

• Onm'aenseigné (quelqu'un)… – (He) taught me (someone).
• Onapartagecegâ teauavecmoi. – (He) shared a cake with me (someone).

On in the meaning of nous (used most often, in the main conversation):

• On y va? (nous y allons?) – Welet's gothere?
• On commencement à travailler maintenant. - ANowbeginwork.

On instead of vous is used when we don’t know how to address the interlocutor, “you” or “you”:

• On se concentration! (concentrez-vous). – Concentrate!
• Est-ce qu’on veut du café? - (Would you) like some coffee?

On instead of ils, elles, as in the case of il, elles, on denotes “some people”, as an indefinite pronoun, or certain persons ils, elles.

• Au parlement on a voté contre cette loi. (ils,lesparlementaires). – The parliament voted against this law (they, the parliamentarians).
• Onaproposéd'alleraucinema (ilsontproposé). – They suggested we go to the cinema (someone, they suggested).

Use of the pronoun On in speech

Using the L'on form

In some cases, the French put l’ before On. In modern French, this l’ means nothing and is used at the request of the speaker (usually in elevated, formal speech) and is used solely for the beauty of sound.

L’ is placed before On :

After short function words ending with a vowel sound:

• et– and
• ou– or
• où– where
• qui– whom
• quoi – what
• si- if, whether

C'est une chambre où l'on se sent bien. - Thisthat room, WhereFinemyselfyou feel.

After the words:

• lorsque – when
• puisque- because
• quoique - although

Lorsque l'on est arrivé à la maison… - WhenWearrivedhome…

At the beginning of a sentence or at the beginning of a subordinate clause:

L'on ne sait jamais. - NeverNotYou know, ….

Il faut que l'on comprenne. - Necessary, tounderstood.

L’ is NOT placed before On:

After the relative pronoun dont:

• Le livre dont onparle est très intéressant. - Book, Owhichtalked, Veryinteresting.

If it is followed by a word starting with the letter l:

• Je ne sais pas la salle où on lit les livres. - INotI knowhall, Wherereadbooks.

This is the indefinite personal pronoun On in French. You absolutely can't go wrong if you use it everywhere. The French will understand you!

Pronouns...

In the case of French pronouns, these tricky words can suck a lot of blood - in some cases it is extremely difficult to remember which pronoun replaces what, and in what order the pronouns follow each other within the same sentence. How to understand all these “he”, “us”, “to her”, “for them” in French?

In this article, we have compiled clear, concise and complete instructions on how to get rid of repeated nouns in a sentence and, with the help of pronouns, give your speech a true French idiomaticity.

• Unstressed personal pronouns

Personal pronouns always agree in gender and number with the person or thing they replace in the sentence. These pronouns may look small and insignificant, but they instantly add completeness and conciseness to your sentence structure and show that you understand how a phrase is constructed in French according to the laws of the language.

1) Personal pronouns replacing the subject

You came across these pronouns right away in your first French lesson, because without them it is impossible to form a single sentence, and the form of the conjugated verb depends on them. So, pronouns that take the place of subjects in a sentence:

1 l. units h. - je/j'- I
2 l. units h. - tu- You
3 l. units h. - il/elle/on- he she
1 l. pl. h. - nous- We
2 l. pl. h. - vous- you, you
3 l. pl. h. - ils/elles- They

Jacquesétait en retard. - Ilétait en retard. ( Jacques I'm late. - He late).

2) Pronouns replacing direct objects

Je t'aime! Tu m'aimes! - I love you! You like me!

We got off to a good start, right? These two phrases are known to 99% of everyone who cares about French, but we still have to figure out the fact that they contain pronouns that replace the direct object.

So, first of all, let's look at all the pronouns in this group:

1 l. units h. - me/m'- me
2 l. units h. - te/t'- you
3 l. units h. - le/la/l’- his her
1 l. pl. h. - nous us
2 l. pl. h. - vous- you
1 l. pl. h. - les- their

We remind you that truncated forms of pronouns (j’, m’, t’, l’) are placed when the following word begins with a vowel or silent “h”.

Je mange le gateau. - Je le mange. (I eat cake. - I his eat.)

Tu aimes les films français. - Tu les aimes.(You love French films. - You their love.)

Attention: a pronoun always agrees in gender and number with the noun it replaces. Yes, you have to keep an extra eye on this, but that’s how French is.

3) Pronouns replacing the indirect object

1 l. units h. - me/m'- to me
2 l. units h. - te/t'- you
3 l. units h. - lui- to him to her
1 l. pl. h. - nous- us
2 l. pl. h. - vous- to you
2 l. pl. h. - leur- them

As you can see, these pronouns are similar to those that replace a direct object, but they perform a different function - they replace a noun in a sentence that is used with a preposition.

Attention: The pronoun system differs in 3L forms. units tsp and 3 l. pl. h.: ​​direct objects are replaced by le/la/les, indirect objects - on lui/leur.

Examples to see this in practice:
Je demande à ma mère.- Je lui demande. (I ask my mother. - I ask her).
Je donne le cadeau aux enfants. -Je le leur donne. (I give a gift to children. - I give his them.)

Don't worry about the two pronouns in a row in the last sentence just yet—there's a great life hack at the end of this article on how to remember the correct order of pronouns in a sentence.

How do you know when to use one pronoun and when to use another? Look for an excuse. If a noun is preceded by a preposition, it is definitely an indirect object.

4) Personal stressed pronouns

It is quite possible that the first French word in your life was precisely the stressed pronoun - you could, for example, in response to the question “Qui est là?” answer “Moi!”

These pronouns serve different functions and are used in a wide range of constructions. Most often they appear in a sentence when it is necessary to place logical emphasis on the subject:

1 l. units h. - moi
2 l. units h. - toi
3 l. units h. - lui/elle/soi
1 l. pl. h. - nous
2 l. pl. h. - vous
3 l. pl. h. - eux/elles

There are a total of 11 ways to use stressed pronouns in a sentence, let’s look at the most common ones:

• After C'est or Ce sont.
  C'est toi Qui laves la salle de bain. - You are cleaning the bathroom.
• When a sentence has several subjects - a noun and a pronoun or two pronouns.
  Michel et moi avons fait du shopping. - Michelle and I went shopping.
• When a question is asked.
  Je suis content, et toi? - I'm happy, and you?
• After prepositions.
  chez lui, sans elle- at his home, without her
• In comparative designs.
  Nous sommes plus rapides qu’ eux. - We are faster than them.
• When indicating ownership.
  Cette tarte est à elle. - This pie belongs to her.

That's it, you can get out of the way and move on to the most interesting part.

5) Reflexive pronouns

Let's finish the conversation about personal pronouns with reflexive pronouns and the verbs with which they are used. To everyone who speaks Russian as a native language, reflexive verbs seem redundant and illogical. But in French they are common, and if you forget about the reflexive particle, you can completely distort the meaning of the entire sentence.

Me, te, se, nous, vous, se- reflexive pronouns that are part of reflexive verbs:

se laver - to wash oneself
se casser - break (some part of the body)
s' habiller - to dress

Pronouns change in person and number when conjugating verbs:
Je me love.
Tu te loves.
Il se love.
Nous nous lavons.
Vous vous lavez.
Ils se lavent.

Probably, for the first time you can feel like a complete idiot, saying out loud nous nous lavons, but reflexive pronouns always agree with the subject in gender and number, and in some cases there is such a funny coincidence in forms.

• Impersonal pronouns

6) Impersonal pronouns acting as subjects

Ce, il- analogues of the impersonal “it” in English. In general, they are interchangeable, but ce more often used in informal communication.

Examples:
Il est possible que… - It is possible that…
C'est moi. - It's me.
Il est nouveau. - This is new.
C'est fini! - Finished!

7) Relative pronouns

These pronouns act as a link between the main and subordinate clauses in a complex sentence. There are only 5 relative pronouns, each with its own precisely limited sphere of use.

The pronoun replaces the direct object in a subordinate clause. In terms of function and use, it can be compared with “that” in English; their fundamental difference is that the English “that” can often be omitted in a sentence, while the French “que” must necessarily be present in the sentence. Compare for yourself:

Où est la chose que j'ai achetée hier? - Where is the thing I bought yesterday?

The pronoun replaces the subject of a subordinate clause and in some cases resembles the English “who”:

Je voudrais un prof qui ne donne pas de devoirs. - I would like to study with a teacher who does not assign homework.

However, the pronoun qui can also refer to inanimate objects:

Cependant, le prof donne des devoirs qui nous aident à apprendre. - However, the teacher gives us homework, which helps us study.

In the last example qui refers to a noun devoirs(homework).

• Lequel/Laquelle/Lesquels/Lesquelles

These beautiful and melodious pronouns replace indirect objects with a preposition.

Attention: if a noun denotes a person, you must use the combination “preposition + qui».

French level in some cases it may be similar to the English “which”:

Je n'ai pas lu la letter à laquelle tu as répondu. - I did not read the letter to which you replied.

• Dont

For indirect objects with preposition de French has a separate pronoun dont, which can be compared to the English “whose” or “that”.

It is often used in sentences with a prepositional verb, such as parler de(talk about something) avoir besoin de(need something) or avoir peur de(to be afraid of something).

For example:

Le pronom dont j'ai peur! - Preposition, whom I'm afraid!

This pronoun indicates a place in space and often coincides in use with the English “where”:

C'est là où j'ai mangé hier. - This is where I ate yesterday.

It's interesting that the pronoun où may also indicate a circumstance of time:

Mercredi, c'est le jour où je pars. - Wednesday is the day I leave.

8) Adverbial pronouns

Luckily for us, French, which is generous with pronouns, in this case limited itself to only two - y And en.

Y à + noun, while en replaces a noun in combination de + noun.

These pronouns are extremely important and are used in virtually every phrase. You might already remember some stable phrases that contain these pronouns: Il y a...(analogous to the English “there is”) or J' en ai un(I have one]). Let's see where else they live.

Let's start with examples:

Je voudrais aller à Paris. -Je voudrais y aller. (I would like to go to Paris. - I would like to go there.)

Il pense à l'été dernier. -Il y pense. (He thinks about last summer. - He thinks about it.)

This pronoun can also replace an entire sentence, which is introduced using a preposition à :

Je pence à ce que j'ai lu. -J' y pense. (I think about what I read. - I think about it.)

Attention: At this stage, it’s easy to get confused with pronouns. Y used instead of a noun in combination à + inanimate noun. Don't confuse it with level, which is used as an allied word, or with lui/leur, which replace the indirect object expressed by an animate noun denoting a person.

Again, examples first:

Ma mère prepare des pâtes. -Ma mere en prepare. (Mom is preparing pasta).

Pronoun en can also act as a substitute for a noun in the combination “numeral/adverb of quantity + noun”:

Il a beaucoup de bonbons. -Il en a beaucoup. (He has a lot of sweets. - He has their a lot of.)
Elle a deux livres.-Elle en a deux. - She has two books. - She has their two.

Attention: pronoun en must always be used when talking about the quantity of something. Yes, you can't say * J'ai un.In this form it will at best be regarded as the beginning of a sentence J'ai un...livre. To say “I have only one,” you need to insert a pronoun en: J'en ai un.

9) Indefinite pronouns

autres- other
chacun, chacune- everyone, every
certain, certaine- some, some
plusieurs- many, numerous
quelqu'un- anyone
tout- All
tous, totes- All

Attention: Most indefinite pronouns are combined with a verb in the 3 l form. units h.

LIFE HACK!

As promised, we show you a way to correctly place pronouns in a sentence. Do you know the French children's song "Frère Jacques"? Whenever you think about where to put le, And where to - lui, hum to the tune of the song:

me, te, nous, vous
me, te, nous, vous
le, la, les
le, la, les
lui, leur
lui, leur
y
en
y
en

Now you can easily produce seemingly furious speeds like “ Je le lui ai donne"!

Pronom y Pronoun y

Pronoun y replaces a noun denoting an object or phenomenon (inanimate), which plays the role of an indirect object in a sentence with the preposition à or sur; can also replace an entire sentence; in this case it is equivalent a cela.

Like unstressed pronouns and the pronoun en, the pronoun at is a verb and always comes before the verb (with the exception of the imperative mood in the affirmative form):

J "y pense, nous at avons aussi pensé.

S" y Est-elle habituée? Refléchisses- y !

Here are a few verbs that are used with the preposition à, and with which the pronoun y can be used:

Pronom en Pronoun en

Pronoun en replaces a noun that plays the role of an indirect object in a sentence and is used with a preposition de(inanimate object or animal name):

J"ai envie du gâteau. J" en ai envie.

En can replace an entire sentence:

Etes-vous sûr qu" elle est vraiment malade? Oui, j" en suis sûr.

Pronoun place en always before the verb, except for the imperative mood in the affirmative form, and in complex tenses - before the auxiliary verb:

Il en parle.

Il n" en parle pas.

En avez-vous parlé?

Il ne m" en a pas parlé.

Parles- en! – N’ en parle pas

Note. In the imperative mood in the 2nd person singular. verbs of the first group have -S at the end when they are used with en or with y:

If the noun that is replaced by the pronoun en, refers to the infinitive, the pronoun is placed before the infinitive:

Combien de tarte doit-il acheter? - Il doit en acheter trois. (acheter trois tartes)

Several verbs are followed by the preposition de:

Pronoun en also used as a direct object.

1.En replaces a noun with an indefinite article, acting as a direct object in affirmative sentence and noun with preposition de in a negative sentence.

A-t-il une sour? Oui, il a une sour.

Oui, il en a une.

Ont-ils un livre? Oui, ils ont un livre.

Oui,ils en ont un.

Please note that the article un (une) is repeated:

Non, il n"a pas de sour.

Non, il n" en a pas.

2. En replaces the direct object of the noun preceded by a word that denotes quantity (noun, adverb, numeral). This word is repeated:

A-t-elle beaucoup de cousins? Oui, elle a beaucoup de cousins.

Oui, elle en a beaucoup.

Non, elle n"a pas beaucoup de cousins.

(Elle a peu de cousins.)

Non, elle n" en a pas beaucoup.

Elle en a peu.

Combien de cours tu choisis?

J' en Choisis six (six courses).

Features of the French indefinite personal pronoun on

Traditionally, the entire variety of French pronouns is divided into/ordered within the following main types/categories: Pronoms personnels (je/tu/toi/lui…) - personal/Pronoms possessifs (le mien/le sien/la tienne/les tiens…) - possessive /Pronoms reflechis (Se/soi) -reflexive/Pronoms interrogatifs (qui/lequel/laquelle/auquel…)-interrogative/Pronoms relatifs (que/quoi/laquelle/lesquels…)-relative/Pronoms demonstratifs (celui/celle/ceux… )-indicative/Pronoms indefinis (aucun/chaque/quelque...)-indefinite.

At the same time, the difficulty of the French language lies in the fact that here we can observe the presence of certain pronominal units that will be difficult to unambiguously attribute to one of the categories/categories we stated above. A striking representative of such controversial units is French pronoun on , which linguists often refer to as a mixed type and are positioned as an indefinite personal pronominal unit.

The fact is that this (usually untranslatable into Russian) pronoun is used in French exclusively as a subject and in the meaning of one of the personal pronouns (combines it with the characteristics of personal pronominal units) in conjunction with a verbal unit, which is necessarily in the third person form - singular (on+verbe-3 personne/singulier), while presenting/pointing to an object/person as generalized/indefinite (characteristic of units of indefinite type - On parle-say (= someone/someone speaks)).

Thus, the main features of the French indefinite personal pronoun on suggest the possibility of its use provided that it is not indicated to the person performing this or that action/deed:

On+dit=tell

On+bien voit=see well

On+éprouve un remords=experience remorse

It is easy to notice that in Russian correspondences there will be no subject (on is not translated), and the verbal unit will no longer be used in the singular (as in French), but in the plural.

When the pronoun on is used in French in conjunction with verbs like sait/doit/peut, etc., similar constructions will be translated into Russian by sentences of the impersonal type:

on+voit=visible

on+doit=need/must

on+sait=known

When constructing negations with the pronoun on, the following scheme is usually followed: on+ne-1st negation+verbe-3rd personne/singulier+pas-2nd negation+….

On+ne+perd+pas pied ici. (They don't lose ground here).

On+ne+se grise+pas ici. (They don't get drunk here).

Interestingly, in colloquial French this indefinite-personal unit on can be used in the function/meaning of any personal pronoun (usually in the meaning nous=we). At the same time, the form 3 personne/singulier in the verbal unit following it is still preserved:

On+fait une promenade digestive. (We'll go for a walk after lunch).

On+va bien aujourd'hui? (So ​​how are you feeling today?

On+reste dans son petit coin et l’on+observe. (So ​​you sit in your corner and watch).

On+ne éprouve beaucoup de difficultés. ((Let's) not face much difficulty)

On+se croise quand? (When will we cross paths?)

In rare cases in French, you can come across examples where the element l' is placed before the indefinite-personal on, which in fact, at the present stage of language development, does not carry any semantic potential and its application (usually within the framework of official/exalted communication) depends only on the desire of the speaker, expressing the intention to make speech more colorful/euphonious.-

Lorsque l’on+a considere+les proprietes de… (When we considered the properties…)

Usually the structure is l’+on used in French in the following cases:

in postposition to short words of a service type ending in a vowel (ou-or/et-and/quoi-what/où-where/si-if, etc.):

C'est un endroit+où+l'on+éprouve un remords. (This is where you feel remorse).