
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 nonreflexively, 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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ils aiment se laver dans la douche après dîner.
Nous nous sommes rencontrés à Paris.
À Noël, ils s’envoient toujours des cadeaux.
Mes deux amies se sont téléphoné à plusieurs reprises.
Jean s’était garé devant la poste.
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
Se
La
5
Y
En
Leur
Nous
Vous
Les
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).