Il te le jette. - He throws it to you.
Il nous le jette. - He throws it to us.
Il vous le jette. - He throws it to you.
l', le, la, and les
l', le, la, and les are pronouns which are used as direct objects and hence are called direct object pronouns. A direct object is a noun that receives the action of a verb.
Il jette la boule. - He throws the ball.
In the above sentence la boule is the direct object.
You have learned earlier that names and regular nouns can be replaced by the subject pronouns ( je, tu...).
Similarly, direct objects, such as "la boule", can be replaced by pronouns.
le - replaces a masculine singular direct object
la - replaces a feminine singular direct object
l' - replaces le and la if they come before a vowel les - replaces plural direct objects, both masculine and feminine The direct object pronouns come before the verb they are linked to.
Il la jette. - He throws it.
Il les jettes. - He throws them.
lui and leur
Indirect objects are prepositional phrases with the object of the preposition. An indirect object is a noun that receives the action of a verb.
Il jette la boule à Jacques. - He throws the ball to Jack.
Il jette la boule à Marie. - He throws the ball to Mary.
Il jette la boule à Jacques et Marie. - He throws the ball to Jack and Mary.
Lui and leur are indirect object pronouns. They replace nouns referring to people and mean to him/her and to them respectively.
lui - replaces a singular masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human leur - replaces a plural masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human An example follows:
Il lui jette la boule. - He throws the ball to him.
Il lui jette la boule. - He throws the ball to her.
Il leur jette la boule. - He throws the ball to them.
Whether lui means to him or to her is given by context.
In English, "He throws him the ball" is also said, and means the same thing.
When used with the direct object pronouns le, la, and les, lui and leur come after those pronouns.
Il la lui jette. - He throws it to him.
Note that while le, la, and les are used to replace people or inanimate objects, lui and leur are not used to replace innanimate objects and things.
Also note that unlike le and la, which are shortened to l' when followed by a vowel, lui is never shortened y
Indirect object pronoun - to it, to them
The French pronoun y is used to replace an object of a prepositional phrase introduced by a.
Je réponds aux questions. - J' y réponds.
I respond to the questions. - I respond to them.
Note that lui and leur, and not y, are used when the object refers to a person or persons.
Replacement of places - there
