Position des Pronoms Clitiques

French clitic pronouns — me, te, se, nous, vous, le, la, les, lui, leur, y, en — are short, unstressable forms that cannot stand alone. They behave like attached fragments of the verb, and their position is governed by a precise set of rules that depend on the form of that verb. This page is a reference: every clitic-placement rule, organized by environment, with examples drawn from natural French. If you need to look up where to place a pronoun in a particular sentence type, this is where you find it. The rules are absolute — there is almost no flexibility, and getting the position wrong sounds immediately ungrammatical to a native ear.

The core principle

A French clitic pronoun attaches to the verb that governs it. Governs means: the verb whose argument the pronoun is. Je le vois — le is the direct object of vois, so it attaches to vois. Je veux le voir — le is the direct object of voir (the infinitive), so it attaches to voir, not veux. This is the master rule; everything else flows from it.

The default attachment is proclitic — the pronoun sits immediately before the governing verb. There is one major exception: the affirmative imperative, where the pronoun is enclitic (after the verb, hyphenated). Everywhere else, the pronoun comes before.

Rule 1: Declarative finite verb — clitic before verb

In any indicative or subjunctive declarative or interrogative sentence, the clitic precedes the conjugated verb.

This is the default that English speakers must internalize first. The English instinct — I see him, with the pronoun after the verb — must be overridden. Je vois le is impossible.

Rule 2: Compound tenses — clitic before the auxiliary

In passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, conditionnel passé, passé du subjonctif — any compound tense built with avoir or être + past participle — the clitic attaches to the auxiliary, not to the participle.

The participle stays in its slot after the auxiliary; the clitic-plus-auxiliary forms a single phonological unit. Note that participle agreement still applies when the preceding direct object is feminine or plural: je l'ai vue (her), je les ai vus (them, masculine plural), je les ai vues (them, feminine plural).

Rule 3: Infinitive — clitic before the infinitive

When the verb the clitic governs is an infinitive, the clitic attaches to that infinitive — even if there is a finite verb earlier in the sentence (a modal, an aspectual, a verb of perception, a verb followed by a preposition + infinitive).

This is one of the most useful rules to drill, because the natural English-speaker error is to attach the clitic to the modal verb: je le veux faire — wrong. The clitic goes with the infinitive whose argument it is. Le is the direct object of faire, not of veux, so it travels with faire.

A historical wrinkle: some older or literary texts allow climbing — je le veux faire in seventeenth-century French. In modern French this has disappeared. Always attach the clitic to the infinitive in modern usage.

Rule 4: Faire causative — clitic before faire

The faire causative construction (faire + infinitive, meaning to have something done) is the conspicuous exception to Rule 3. Here the clitic attaches to faire, not to the infinitive.

The same applies to laisser + infinitive in its causative use:

The reasoning is that in faire faire, the two verbs form a tight unit and the clitic treats them as a single complex verb. This exception trips up learners who have just internalized Rule 3; remember that faire + infinitive is special.

Rule 5: Affirmative imperative — clitic after the verb

In affirmative commands (tu, nous, vous imperative forms), the clitic attaches after the verb, joined by a hyphen.

Two formal changes apply when me and te end up in this post-verbal position:

1. Me becomes moi, te becomes toi: donne-moi (not donne-me), lave-toi (not lave-te).
2. The other clitics keep their normal forms: fais-le, parle-lui, donne-leur, vas-y, prends-en.

The conjugation also drops the silent -s ending of -er imperatives in the tu form: tu parles → parle ! (no -s). However, when the verb is followed by y or en, the -s comes back to ease pronunciation: vas-y (not va-y), manges-en (not mange-en).

Rule 6: Negative imperative — clitic before the verb

In negative commands, the clitic returns to its normal pre-verbal position. Ne and pas wrap the clitic-plus-verb unit.

The shift between Rule 5 (after the verb in affirmative) and Rule 6 (before the verb in negative) is unique to the imperative. Note that moi and toi revert to me and te in the negative: ne te lève pas (not ne toi lève pas).

This affirmative/negative shift is one of the cleanest contrasts in French grammar:

• Affirmative: Donne-le-moi ! (Give it to me!)
• Negative: Ne me le donne pas ! (Don't give it to me!)

The order of the two clitics also swaps, and moi changes back to me. Both forms are mandatory in their respective contexts.

Rule 7: Gérondif — clitic between en and verb

The gérondif (en + present participle) places clitics between en and the participle.

The clitic is sandwiched between the gerundive marker en and the participle. This position is fixed; you cannot place the clitic anywhere else.

The order of multiple clitics

When two or three clitics combine on the same verb, they must appear in a fixed order. The order depends on whether the verb is a finite verb / infinitive (default) or an affirmative imperative.

Default order (declarative, infinitive, negative imperative)

Examples:

The asymmetry to notice: with first/second-person clitics (me, te, nous, vous), the order is IO-DO (je te le donne — te is indirect, le is direct, te comes first). With third-person clitics (lui, leur), the order flips to DO-IO (je le lui donne — le direct comes before lui indirect). This is the single most-confused point of French clitic ordering.

The rule, restated: me/te/se/nous/vous always come first, then DO third-person, then IO third-person, then y, then en. There is no combination of me/te/nous/vous with lui/leur — French does not allow me lui or te leur. To express He introduced me to him, you have to rephrase: Il m'a présenté à lui.

Affirmative imperative order

In affirmative imperatives, the order is different: DO before IO, and y and en come last.

The symmetry is broken: in declaratives the order is IO-DO for first/second person but DO-IO for third person; in imperatives the order is uniformly DO-IO. This is why donne-le-moi (give it to me) but je me le donne (I give it to myself) — the clitics swap order.

Y and en: the prepositional clitics

Y replaces a phrase introduced by à (or by certain other prepositions when the complement is a thing). En replaces a phrase introduced by de, or a noun phrase with a numeral or quantity.

These two pronouns occupy the rightmost positions in the clitic order: y before en. Il y en a (there are some) is the canonical illustration — il is the impersonal subject, y is locative, en is partitive, and they stack in this order.

Special cases

Voici / voilà: these can take a clitic before them. Le voici (here he is), les voilà (there they are). This is one of the few cases where a clitic appears outside a verb-headed unit.

Etre + adjective: clitics never attach to être + adjective constructions. To say I am proud of him, you must use a stressed pronoun: je suis fier de lui (not je lui suis fier).

Negative imperative with two clitics: order returns to the default declarative pattern. Ne me le donne pas (don't give it to me) — me before le, then verb, then pas.

With a verb of perception + infinitive: the clitic attaches to the perception verb when the clitic is the perceived subject; to the infinitive when the clitic is its object. Je l'entends parler (I hear him talking — l' is the perceived subject of parler). Je l'entends dire que... (I hear him saying that... — same logic). For double clitics, attachment can vary; both je l'entends le dire and je le lui entends dire are heard, with the latter slightly more literary.

Common Mistakes

The combinatorial gap (me lui, te leur not allowed) catches many learners. The workaround is always to use a stressed pronoun after a preposition: je me présente à lui, il s'adresse à moi, elle s'attache à toi. The stressed-pronoun-after-preposition strategy never fails.

Summary table: where the clitic goes

Key takeaways

• The clitic attaches to the verb whose argument it is — usually before, occasionally after.
• The default position is proclitic (before the verb). The single environment where the clitic goes after the verb is the affirmative imperative.
• In compound tenses, the clitic attaches to the auxiliary, not the participle.
• With infinitives, the clitic goes before the infinitive — except in faire / laisser causatives, where it goes before the matrix verb.
• Affirmative imperative reverses the position (after verb, hyphenated) and changes me → moi / te → toi. Negative imperative restores the default position and the original forms.
• Multiple-clitic order: me/te/se/nous/vous
  • le/la/les
    • lui/leur
      • y
        • en — except in affirmative imperatives, where the order is le/la/les
          • moi/toi/lui/nous/vous/leur
            • y
              • en.
• Me/te/nous/vous cannot combine with lui/leur; rephrase with a stressed pronoun after a preposition.