Position des Pronoms COI

The placement rules for indirect object pronouns are identical to those for direct object pronouns. They go before the conjugated verb in the default case, before the auxiliary in compound tenses, before the infinitive when one is governing them, and after the verb (with a hyphen) in the affirmative imperative — flipping back to pre-verbal in the negative imperative. There is nothing new to learn position-wise once you've drilled the direct object pronoun placement: only the form changes (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur instead of me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les).

This page works through each context with examples specifically designed for indirect pronouns, so you can drill the form in each position without having to translate from the direct-object pages. If you've internalized the direct-object placement, this is reinforcement; if you haven't, this is the parallel drill.

Default: pronoun before the conjugated verb

In a simple declarative sentence with a single conjugated verb, the indirect object pronoun sits immediately before that verb.

The shape is subject + indirect pronoun + verb + (rest) — the same as for direct objects. The pronoun and the verb form a tight phonetic unit; nothing else slips between them.

This applies across all simple tenses: present, imparfait, passé simple, futur simple, conditionnel présent, present subjunctive.

*(imparfait)* *(futur simple)* *(conditionnel présent)*

Negation: ne and pas wrap around the pronoun + verb

In negative sentences, ne goes before the pronoun and pas goes after the verb. The indirect pronoun stays glued to the front of the verb.

The order is subject + ne + pronoun + verb + pas. Ne binds with the pronoun phonetically — ne le, ne la, ne lui, ne leur run together — and in casual spoken French, ne is dropped: je lui parle pas, tu leur as pas répondu. This is universal in everyday speech; in writing or formal speech, always include ne.

Compound tenses: pronoun before the auxiliary

In compound tenses (passé composé, plus-que-parfait, conditionnel passé, futur antérieur), the indirect object pronoun goes before the auxiliary (avoir or être), not before the past participle.

The shape: subject + indirect pronoun + auxiliary + past participle.

In the negative, ne and pas wrap around the pronoun + auxiliary cluster, and pas sits between the auxiliary and the participle:

The order is subject + ne + pronoun + auxiliary + pas + participle. The pronoun stays in front of the auxiliary; pas comes between auxiliary and participle.

Important: no past participle agreement with indirect objects

Unlike preceding direct objects, indirect object pronouns do not trigger past participle agreement. The participle stays in its base form regardless of the gender or number of the indirect object.

*(parlé invariable, even when "her")* *(écrit invariable, even for a feminine group)* *(donné stays donné — no agreement on the indirect lui; agreement would only fire if a direct object preceded)*

This is one of the simplifying differences between direct and indirect pronouns. Direct object pronouns trigger agreement when they precede the verb; indirect pronouns never do.

A frequent confusion: when both a direct and an indirect pronoun precede the verb in a compound tense, only the direct one triggers agreement.

*(donnée agrees with la — feminine direct object)* *(rendues agrees with les — feminine plural direct object)*

The participle agrees with la (or les), not with lui / leur. The indirect pronoun is along for the ride; agreement only cares about the direct one.

With infinitives: pronoun before the infinitive

When the indirect object belongs to an infinitive — that is, when a conjugated verb (typically a modal: vouloir, pouvoir, devoir, savoir, oser, aller in futur proche) is followed by an infinitive — the pronoun goes before the infinitive, not before the conjugated verb.

The shape: subject + conjugated verb + indirect pronoun + infinitive. Je veux *lui parler, not je **lui veux parler. The pronoun is the indirect object of *parler, so it sits in front of parler.

This follows the same logic as direct objects: the pronoun goes in front of the verb that governs it semantically. The modal vouloir doesn't take an indirect object — je veux on its own with no infinitive can't mean "I want to him/her" — so the indirect pronoun belongs to the infinitive parler.

In the negative with an infinitive:

The order is subject + ne + conjugated verb + pas + pronoun + infinitive. The negation wraps around the conjugated verb, and the pronoun stays with the infinitive.

Affirmative imperative: pronoun AFTER the verb

The affirmative imperative is the single exception to the rule that the pronoun goes before the verb. In affirmative commands, the pronoun follows the verb, attached with a hyphen.

A specific rule applies in the affirmative imperative:

• Me becomes moi in the affirmative imperative when it's the only or last clitic. Donne-moi le livre (give me the book), not donne-me le livre. With te, the same pattern: lève-toi, not lève-te. (This rule applies to both direct and indirect uses of me/te.)
• Lui, leur, nous, vous keep their normal forms: parle-lui, donne-leur, écoute-nous, répondez-vous (used reflexively).
• Hyphens are mandatory. Parle-lui, never parle lui.

*(me → moi after the verb)* *(nous stays nous)*

Negative imperative: pronoun BEFORE the verb (back to normal)

In the negative imperative, the pronoun goes back to its normal pre-verbal position. The flip-flop between affirmative and negative imperatives is the most error-prone area.

The shape: ne + indirect pronoun + verb + pas. Note that moi/toi revert to me/te in the negative imperative — ne me téléphone pas, not ne moi téléphone pas.

So the imperative has two faces: post-verbal in the affirmative (parle-lui), pre-verbal in the negative (ne lui parle pas). Same form (lui); different position.

Side-by-side tense comparison

To anchor the placement rule across tenses, here's I talk to him/her — across the major tenses and constructions:

Tense / construction	Form	Translation
Present	Je lui parle.	I talk to him/her.
Negative present	Je ne lui parle pas.	I don't talk to him/her.
Imparfait	Je lui parlais.	I used to talk to him/her.
Passé composé	Je lui ai parlé.	I talked to him/her.
Negative passé composé	Je ne lui ai pas parlé.	I didn't talk to him/her.
Plus-que-parfait	Je lui avais parlé.	I had talked to him/her.
Futur simple	Je lui parlerai.	I'll talk to him/her.
Conditionnel présent	Je lui parlerais.	I would talk to him/her.
Vouloir + infinitive	Je veux lui parler.	I want to talk to him/her.
Aller + infinitive (futur proche)	Je vais lui parler.	I'm going to talk to him/her.
Affirmative imperative (tu)	Parle-lui !	Talk to him/her!
Negative imperative (tu)	Ne lui parle pas !	Don't talk to him/her!

The pattern is consistent: pronoun in front of the conjugated verb (or in front of the infinitive when there is one), except in the affirmative imperative where it shifts behind the verb with a hyphen.

This table is identical in structure to the one for direct object pronouns; only the pronoun form changes (lui instead of le).

Drill examples in natural register

These sentences illustrate the rule across natural everyday French.

*(formal)*

A note on sentences with both pronouns

When a verb has both a direct and an indirect object pronoun, both come before the verb (or both come after in the affirmative imperative). Their relative order depends on the persons involved — there's a separate page on multiple-clitic order — but the placement principle stays the same: the cluster of pronouns goes immediately before the verb.

The same placement rules govern these clusters: pre-verbal in declarative and negative, post-verbal (with hyphens) in the affirmative imperative.

Why French places pronouns before the verb

French object pronouns — direct and indirect — are clitics: phonologically reduced forms that lean on the verb. They form a tight phonetic and grammatical unit with the verb, treated as a single word for purposes of stress and rhythm. Je lui parle is pronounced as one prosodic unit, jelyparl. The pronoun has no independent stress and cannot stand alone.

This is why French uses moi, toi, lui, elle, eux, elles (the disjunctive forms) when the pronoun does need to stand alone — avec moi, c'est lui, c'est à elle. In those positions, the clitic forms wouldn't work because the pronoun isn't attached to a verb.

The clitic-and-verb-together principle explains the placement rule across all the contexts above: the pronoun lands in front of (or sometimes after, in imperatives) the verb that governs it, and stays glued to that verb regardless of what other elements join the sentence.

Comparison with English

English has no clitic object pronouns. Him, her, them, to him, to her are full prosodic words that can carry stress and sit anywhere in the post-verbal slot: I talk to him, I really truly genuinely talk to him. The phrase to him is two separable words, the preposition to and the pronoun him.

French clitic indirect pronouns are different. They're tightly bound to the verb, they go in front of it, and they collapse the à + person phrase into a single inseparable unit (lui, leur). This positional rigidity is why French sentence rhythm sounds so different from English — French clusters its grammatical machinery in a tight pre-verbal package, while English spreads it out around the verb.

The other major contrast: English keeps the preposition to visible (I talk to him); French absorbs it into the pronoun (je lui parle — no separate à). When you hear je lui parle, the à is implicit in the form lui. Trying to keep the à visible (✗ je à lui parle, ✗ je parle à lui in declarative) produces ungrammatical or stylistically marked sentences.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Default rule: indirect pronoun goes before the verb. Always.
• In compound tenses: pronoun goes before the auxiliary, not before the participle.
• With infinitives: pronoun goes before the infinitive (the verb that governs it), not before the conjugated modal.
• In the affirmative imperative: pronoun goes after the verb, attached with a hyphen. Me becomes moi (and te → toi); lui, leur, nous, vous stay the same.
• In the negative imperative: pronoun returns to its normal pre-verbal position. Moi/toi revert to me/te.
• Negation wraps ne...pas around the pronoun + verb cluster, never separating them.
• No past participle agreement with indirect object pronouns — the participle stays invariable.
• The placement rules are identical to those for direct objects. Only the form differs: lui/leur instead of le/la/les.