Personne ou chose : quand le pronom quitte le verbe

Unité GR-53 · campagne 5 · penser à elle, rêver de lui — mais je lui parle.

The page Quel pronom ? (P49.pronoun-systems.09) gave the rule for a group opened by a preposition: à + thing becomes y, de + thing becomes en. With a person the rule splits, and it splits by verb. After parler à, the person becomes a small pronoun in front of the verb: je lui parle. After penser à, the person stays behind the verb, with its preposition and a tonic pronoun: je pense à elle. No form of the noun tells you which — only the verb does. This page sorts the verbs.

The rule in one table

Two rows keep the person after the verb; only one row brings it in front. When in doubt with a person, the safe question is not "which pronoun?" but "does this verb belong to the parler group?"

Telling the two à groups apart

• The parler group: the person receives something. A word, a letter, an answer, a phone call, an object, a pleasure, a likeness. Parler à, dire à, demander à, répondre à, écrire à, téléphoner à, donner à, prêter à, envoyer à, montrer à, plaire à, sourire à, obéir à, ressembler à, manquer à (tu me manques). Here the person is a destination, and it comes forward as lui / leur — or me, te, nous, vous.
• The penser group: the mind or the attention turns towards the person. Nothing is handed over. Penser à, songer à, rêver à, tenir à, faire attention à, s'intéresser à, s'habituer à, se fier à, s'adresser à, avoir affaire à. Here the person stays behind the verb as à + tonic: à moi, à toi, à lui, à elle, à nous, à vous, à eux, à elles.

Every pronominal verb + à belongs to the penser group. S'intéresser, s'habituer, se fier, s'adresser: the verb already carries me, te, se… in front, and French never puts me/te/se next to lui/leur. So: je m'adresse à lui, never je me lui adresse.

If your first language is Russian

Russian gives a useful first hint. When Russian uses a bare dative — звонить ему, отвечать ей, нравиться им — French usually uses lui / leur: je lui téléphone, je lui réponds, ça leur plaît. When Russian uses a preposition or another case — думать о ней, мечтать о нём, привыкать к нему, интересоваться им — French usually keeps à / de + tonic: je pense à elle, je rêve de lui, je m'habitue à lui, je m'intéresse à lui.

The hint fails on pronominal verbs: доверять ему is a bare dative, but se fier à is pronominal, so it is je me fie à lui. The pronominal rule wins.

Minimal pairs

And the pair that shows the two à groups on one person: Paul ? Je lui parle tous les jours — et je pense à lui tous les jours.

What you will hear

In conversation, j'y pense and j'en rêve are heard about people too — Marie ? J'y pense souvent. It is understood and common in speech, but written French at B2 keeps the tonic pronoun: je pense souvent à elle. Recognise the spoken form; write the other one.

The errors this page is for

The verb list

A reference to come back to. For each verb, what a thing and what a person become.

The items below give the same verbs with a thing and with a person, and ask which form fits.

Loading the exercise...

Oui / non drill

A question, then two answers to write: the oui answer and the non answer, each with the complement replaced by its pronoun. Every answer is graded, and a wrong one names the rule it breaks.

Checking your progress...