Verbes Suivis de À | French Grammar

A large family of French verbs requires à between the verb and its noun complement. Téléphoner doesn't take a direct object the way English call does — it takes à and then the person: je téléphone *à mon père. *Plaire and manquer are even stranger — the syntactic subject and the experiencer flip places: *Tu me manques* literally says "you are missed by me," but means "I miss you."

This page lists the verbs that take à + noun complement, explains the indirect-object logic that unites them, and shows how the à + noun gets replaced by lui/leur when the complement is a person and by y when it is a thing. Mastering these verbs is the gateway to using French object pronouns correctly.

Why "à" marks an indirect object

When a French verb requires à before its complement, that complement is an indirect object (complément d'objet indirect, or COI). The à is the marker — it tells the listener that the noun that follows is the recipient of the action, not the thing being acted upon directly. English uses two strategies for this — I gave him the book (no preposition) or I gave the book to him (with to). French has only one: the indirect object is always introduced by à in its full form.

J'ai parlé à Pierre ce matin au bureau.

I talked to Pierre this morning at the office.

Tu as téléphoné à ta mère pour son anniversaire ?

Did you call your mother for her birthday?

Elle a écrit une longue lettre à son grand-père.

She wrote a long letter to her grandfather.

The à is structural — drop it and the sentence breaks. Je parle Pierre is not French. The verb-preposition pair is a single unit, exactly as parler de is for talking about something.

The high-frequency list

These are the everyday verbs to learn as inseparable from à. Several correspond to English transitive verbs with no preposition — the source of most learner errors.

Verb	English equivalent	Example
parler à	talk to, speak to	Je parle à mon collègue.
téléphoner à	call (on the phone)	Je téléphone à mon père.
répondre à	answer (a person/question)	Réponds à la question.
dire à	tell, say to	Je l'ai dit à Marie.
demander à	ask	Demande à ton frère.
écrire à	write to	J'écris à mon ami.
plaire à	please, be liked by	Cette idée me plaît.
manquer à	be missed by	Tu me manques.
ressembler à	look like, resemble	Il ressemble à son père.
assister à	attend	J'assiste à la réunion.
obéir à	obey	Obéis à tes parents.
réfléchir à	think about, ponder	Réfléchis à la question.
penser à	think about (have on one's mind)	Je pense à toi.
renoncer à	give up, renounce	Il a renoncé à son projet.
succéder à	succeed (follow), take over from	Elle succède à son père.
convenir à	suit, be acceptable to	Cela me convient.
s'intéresser à	be interested in	Je m'intéresse à l'art.
jouer à	play (a game/sport)	On joue au tennis.
s'habituer à	get used to	Je m'habitue au climat.
tenir à	care about, insist on	Je tiens à toi.

For each of these, the à is not optional. Je téléphone Pierre is not idiomatic colloquial French; it is simply ungrammatical. The same applies to je réponds la question, j'obéis mes parents, and j'assiste un concert — all wrong.

Tu as répondu à mon message d'hier soir ?

Did you answer my message from last night?

Mon fils ressemble énormément à son grand-père maternel.

My son looks a lot like his maternal grandfather.

On va assister au mariage de Léa samedi prochain.

We're going to attend Léa's wedding next Saturday.

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For high-frequency verbs like téléphoner à, parler à, répondre à, store the verb and its preposition as a single chunk in your memory — never as two separate words. When you reach for the verb, the à should come along automatically.

"Plaire à" and "manquer à": the inverted constructions

Two verbs in this list have a syntax that flips the English subject and object. They are critical to learn well, because the entire word order is reversed compared to English.

Plaire à — to please / to be liked

In English, you say I like the idea. In French, the closest equivalent flips it: the idea is the grammatical subject, and the person who likes it is the indirect object marked with à.

Cette idée plaît à Marie. — Marie likes this idea. (Literally: this idea pleases Marie.)
Cette idée me plaît. — I like this idea.
Le film t'a plu ? — Did you like the film?

The pronoun comes from the indirect-object set (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur). The verb agrees with what is being liked, not with the person who likes it.

Ce restaurant nous a beaucoup plu — on y retournera.

We really liked this restaurant — we'll go back.

Ton cadeau a énormément plu à ma sœur.

My sister loved your gift.

Manquer à — to be missed by

This is one of the most tested constructions in French exams, because English speakers consistently reverse it.

Tu me manques. — I miss you. (Literally: you are missing to me.)
Mes amis me manquent. — I miss my friends.
Pierre manque à Marie. — Marie misses Pierre.

The person who is missed is the grammatical subject; the person who does the missing is the à-marked indirect object. To express I miss you, the subject in French is you: tu me manques. Read this construction backward from English and you will keep getting it wrong.

Mes parents me manquent terriblement quand je suis à l'étranger.

I miss my parents terribly when I'm abroad.

Tu lui manques, tu sais — il parle de toi tous les jours.

He misses you, you know — he talks about you every day.

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The trick: when you want to say I miss X, mentally rephrase as X is missing to me. I miss my mom → My mom is missing to me → Ma mère me manque. Stick to that mental detour until the inversion becomes automatic.

Pronoun replacement: lui/leur for people, y for things

When the à + noun is replaced by a pronoun, French uses two different sets depending on whether the noun refers to a person or a thing. This animacy split is mandatory and easy to get wrong.

People (animate) → lui / leur

For human (and pet) indirect objects, French uses the indirect-object pronouns me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. Notice that lui covers both him and her — there is no gender distinction in third-person indirect-object pronouns. The pronoun goes before the verb.

Je parle à Pierre. → Je *lui parle.* (I speak to him.)
Je téléphone à ma sœur. → Je *lui téléphone.* (I call her.)
Tu écris à tes parents ? → Tu *leur écris ?* (Do you write to them?)
J'ai répondu à mes amis. → Je *leur ai répondu.* (I answered them.)

Tu as parlé à ton patron de tes vacances ? — Oui, je lui en ai parlé hier.

Did you talk to your boss about your holidays? — Yes, I talked to him about it yesterday.

J'ai écrit à mes grands-parents la semaine dernière. Je leur écris toujours pour leur anniversaire.

I wrote to my grandparents last week. I always write to them for their birthday.

Things (inanimate) → y

For inanimate indirect objects (a question, a problem, a project, an idea), French uses the clitic y:

Je réponds à la question. → J'*y réponds.* (I'm answering it.)
Je réfléchis à ce problème. → J'*y réfléchis.* (I'm thinking about it.)
Il a renoncé à son projet. → Il *y a renoncé.* (He gave up on it.)
Tu t'habitues au climat ? → Tu *t'y habitues ?* (Are you getting used to it?)

The clitic y sits in front of the verb just like lui/leur, but it never refers to a person. If the à + noun is a person, you must use lui/leur (or, for emphasis, à + tonic pronoun — see below).

Tu as réfléchi à ma proposition ? — Oui, j'y ai réfléchi toute la nuit.

Did you think about my proposal? — Yes, I thought about it all night.

Cette idée me plaît énormément, j'y pense depuis des semaines.

I really like this idea, I've been thinking about it for weeks.

The exception: penser à + person uses tonic pronoun

There is one important wrinkle in the people/things split. The verb penser à — think about, have on one's mind — does not follow the lui/leur rule when the complement is a person. Instead, it keeps the à and uses a tonic pronoun (moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles).

Je pense à Marie. → Je pense *à elle.* (I'm thinking about her.) — NOT je lui pense.
Tu penses à tes amis ? → Tu penses *à eux ?* — NOT tu leur penses.
Il pense souvent à toi. — He often thinks about you. (Tonic à toi, not te pense.)

For things, penser à behaves normally and uses y: je pense à mon travail → j'y pense. The split is animacy-driven, but the human form is à + tonic pronoun, not lui/leur.

A small group of other verbs behaves the same way — keeping à + tonic pronoun for people: tenir à (Je tiens à elle), faire attention à (Fais attention à lui), s'intéresser à (Je m'intéresse à eux), and rêver à (poetic; usually rêver de). The grammatical reasoning is debated, but the practical rule is firm: with penser à and these neighbors, people get à + tonic pronoun, not lui/leur.

Tu penses à Marie ? — Oui, je pense à elle tous les jours.

Are you thinking about Marie? — Yes, I think about her every day.

Je tiens beaucoup à mes amis d'enfance — je tiens à eux comme à de la famille.

I really care about my childhood friends — I care about them like family.

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The rule of thumb: most à-verbs use lui/leur for people and y for things. The exceptions — penser à, tenir à, s'intéresser à, faire attention à, rêver à — keep à + tonic pronoun for people. Memorize the exceptions; everything else follows the default rule.

Why English speakers find this hard

English doesn't mark indirect objects with a preposition in many cases. Call my dad, answer the question, attend the concert, obey your parents — all transitive in English. The English speaker reaches for the same syntax and produces téléphoner mon père, répondre la question, assister le concert, obéir mes parents — all ungrammatical in French.

The opposite trap also exists: English uses to with some verbs (talk to, write to, listen to), and beginners translate to as à even when French uses no preposition. Listen to the radio is écouter la radio, not écouter à la radio. Wait for the bus is attendre le bus, not attendre pour le bus. Memorize each verb with its preposition as a single lexical unit — téléphoner à, répondre à, plaire à, but just écouter (no preposition).

Verbs that have à in some uses but not others

A few verbs change behavior depending on what follows them. With demander / dire, the à marks the person and the requested thing is direct: demander qqch à qqn (Je demande l'heure à Pierre); demander à qqn de + inf (Je demande à Marie de venir). With jouer, the choice of preposition flips by category: jouer à + game/sport (au tennis, aux échecs) vs jouer de + instrument (du piano, de la guitare). With manquer, the preposition switches the meaning entirely: manquer à qqn (be missed by — Tu me manques) vs manquer de qqch (lack — On manque de temps).

Mon frère joue du piano, et moi je joue au foot.

My brother plays piano, and I play soccer.

Common mistakes

❌ Je téléphone Marie tous les soirs.

Incorrect — téléphoner requires à before its complement.

✅ Je téléphone à Marie tous les soirs.

I call Marie every evening.

❌ Réponds la question, s'il te plaît.

Incorrect — répondre takes à before both questions and people.

✅ Réponds à la question, s'il te plaît.

Answer the question, please.

❌ Je manque mes amis.

Incorrect — manquer reverses the English subject and object: 'my friends are missing to me'.

✅ Mes amis me manquent.

I miss my friends.

❌ Je lui pense souvent.

Incorrect — penser à uses à + tonic pronoun for people, not lui/leur.

✅ Je pense souvent à elle.

I often think about her.

❌ J'écoute à la radio le matin.

Incorrect — écouter takes a direct object with no preposition.

✅ J'écoute la radio le matin.

I listen to the radio in the morning.

❌ Je joue le piano depuis dix ans.

Incorrect — jouer + instrument takes de, not à or no preposition.

✅ Je joue du piano depuis dix ans.

I've been playing the piano for ten years.

❌ Tu y as répondu ? (when 'y' refers to your friend who asked something)

Incorrect — for a person, use lui, not y.

✅ Tu lui as répondu ?

Did you answer him/her?

Key takeaways

The à after these verbs marks the indirect object — it is structural and cannot be dropped.
For people, à + noun becomes lui (singular) or leur (plural) before the verb. For things, it becomes y.
The exceptions are penser à, tenir à, s'intéresser à, faire attention à, rêver à — these keep à + tonic pronoun (à elle, à eux) for people.
Plaire à and manquer à invert English subject and object: Cette idée me plaît = I like this idea; Tu me manques = I miss you. Read backward from English to get them right.
Memorize each verb as a unit with its preposition. Téléphoner à, répondre à, obéir à — never as separate pieces.

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