Personal pronouns 613 WORD ORDERPosition of unstressed object pronouns
When the verbs faire, laisser, envoyeror verbs of perception, e.g. voir, are followed by an infinitive,
object pronouns normally appear before the first verb and notbefore the infinitive.
e.g. Il les fait entrer; Elle m’a laissé partir
Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present
It should be particularly noted that a first- and second-person indirect object pronoun
precedes any direct object pronoun, e.g. je vous les révèle(lines 33–4), butthat with the third-
person indirect object pronouns, luiand leur, the order is reversed, e.g. il la lui donne; je le leur
demande.
4 STRESSED PRONOUNSa The stressed pronouns are used where a pronominal verb is followed by à+ person, e.g. Je me
fie à elle. They are also used with a small number of other verbs which take à+ person, notably
verbs of movement, e.g. il vient à moi; also with penser, songer, croire, tenir, e.g. je pense à lui
and with être à, e.g. ce livre est à lui.
b Soiis the stressed form of the pronoun se. It may refer either to people or to things, but is
normally only used to refer to non-specifics, such as on, chacun, e.g. on est obligé de le faire
soi-même.
See for further information: Coffman Crocker, pp. 252–68
Ferrar, pp. 199–210
Hawkins and Towell, pp. 45–82
Judge and Healey, pp. 54–76
L’Huillier, pp. 488–516
Price, pp. 138–57
Turk and Vandaele, pp. 60–70
EXERCISES1 Study the use of the pronouns le/l’/lesin the following examples taken from the text. What do
these pronouns refer to in each case? Could abe described as ‘neutral’ le/l’?
a vous ne pourrez plus jamais l’oublier (lines 20–1)
b nous pouvons toutes vous lesrévéler (lines 24–5)
c je lesconnais (line 33)
d après lesavoir entendus (lines 36–7)
e vous puissiez lesréaliser (line 53)