To effectively use French object pronouns, you need to understand what they mean and where they go in the sentence. In the affirmative imperative, direct-object pronouns (like reflexive pronouns) follow the verb and are attached to it with hyphens; in addition, me changes to moi and te changes to toi. This chart shows the object pronoun word order with the affirmative imperative (command):
| Direct Object (3rd Person) | Direct Object (1st or 2nd Person) or Reflexive Pronoun | Y (there — refers to place) | En (some, any, of them) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le | moi | y | en |
| La | toi | ||
| Les | lui | ||
| nous | |||
| vous | |||
| leur |
Here’s the word order with everything else, including the negative imperative:
| Reflexive Pronoun, Direct Object (1st or 2nd Person), or Indirect Object (1st or 2nd Person) | Direct Object (3rd Person) | Indirect Object (3rd Person) | Y (there — refers to place) | En (some, any, of them) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| me | le | lui | y | en |
| te | la | leur | ||
| se | les | |||
| nous | ||||
| vous |