Summary Chapter 13

Direct and Indirect Objects

Many -- perhaps most -- verbs need to be followed by a noun in order for their meaning to be complete. Those nouns are called object complements and such verbs are called transitive verbs.

Object complements can come in a number of forms. The most important ones are direct objects and indirect objects. In this sentence:

Paul gives the book to John.

Paul is the subject, the book is the direct object and to John is the indirect object. In English the indirect object is usually preceded by the preposition "to." English can also change the order of the complements, in which case the "to" disappears and is simply implied:

Paul gives John the book.

In French, indirect objects are generally preceded by "à". Unlike what we saw in English, this "à" is always required in French. 

Paul donne le livre à Jean. (NB: Paul donne à Jean le livre is odd but possible, for stylistic effect.)

Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

Sometimes it is possible and more natural not to use the full noun phrase ("le livre" or "Jean" in the preceding example), because these nouns have just been mentioned and, thus, to avoid repetition. In such cases, the full noun is replaced by a pronoun: Paul gives it to him. French, like Latin and unlike English, tends to use special forms for indirect and direct object pronouns, especially in the third person:

Paul le lui donne.

In this more compact sentence, "le" is a direct object pronoun replacing "le livre" and "lui" is an indirect object pronoun (reserved for people) which replaces "Jean." These -- and all other -- object pronouns are placed between the subject and verb. (Otherwise, if grammatically possible, we need to use the "disjunctive pronouns" that we saw in Chapter 8.)

Here are the third person object pronouns:

NB: (1) All plural forms are identical for masculine and feminine; (2) pronouns "le" and "la" elide as l' when followed by a vowel; (3) le, la, l', and les can refer to people or things (him, her, it, them), whereas lui and leur can only refer to people (to him, to her, to them).

First and second person object pronouns ('me, to me; us, to us; you, to you'): 

NB: Direct and indirect object forms are identical in these cases. In order to distinguish, it is necessary to infer based on the verb: do I expect an indirect or direct object with this verb? E.g., parler: Le professeur nous parle. "Nous" must be indirect because the verb parler is followed principally by indirect objects.

The Pronoun "en":

Not all object complements are direct or indirect objects. Some complements are preceded by a preposition (other than "à"). When we need a pronoun for an object implicitly preceded by the preposition "de", French requires the pronoun "en." Take, for example, the verb dépendre which requires "de" after it (unlike its English cognate: to depend on):

Cet étudiant dépend d'une bourse fédérale. ('This student depends on, is dependent on a federal scholarship.')

Cet étudiant en dépend.

Also the expression avoir besoin de:

Tu as besoin d'aide? -- Oui, j'en ai besoin. ('Do you need help? Yes, I need some.')

There are one or two other important cases where en is required. 

(1) When the noun would be preceded by the "partitive" article du, de la, de l', or des (notice the presence of the "de" here!), that noun needs to be replaced by en.

Ce monsieur désire du café.

Il reste du café? -- Ce monsieur en désire.

(2) Nouns associated with an expression of quantity -- trop de, beaucoup de, un peu de -- even if the expression itself does not require de: plusieurs, cinq, six, huit, etc.

Tu as acheté des livres? -- Oui, j'en ai acheté beaucoup.

 -- Oui, j'en ai acheté plusieurs.

 -- Oui, j'en ai acheté cinq.

 -- Oui, en ai acheté dix. (etc.)

Preposition "en":

The pronoun "en" must not be confused with the preposition "en" whose principal meaning is "in" but can have a number of less concrete meanings, especially when used in longer prepositional or adverbial phrases. These phrases must be learned separately as vocabulary items.

The Pronoun "y": 

"Y" is a special pronoun used for nouns that would be preceded by the preposition à (if the noun is inanimate -- otherwise, with people, lui/leur are used) or another preposition. Because these other prepositions often indicate a place where the thing is found, a common (though definitely not universal) translation of "y" is "there":

Tu penses à notre conversation? -- Oui, j'y pense.

Paul va à la banque? -- Oui, il y va.

Mes clefs sont sur la table? -- Oui, elles y sont.

Past Participle Agreement (avoir as auxiliary)

When using compound tenses, the participle can be seen as a kind of verbal adjective describing the direct object. As a result, if the direct object has already been named in the sentence -- even as a pronoun ! -- the past participle agrees with that preceding direct object. So, if the preceding direct object is feminine, the participle takes an "-e"; if the preceding direct object is plural, the participle takes an "-s":

Les journaux? Oui, je les ai vus.

Tu connais ma sœur? -- Oui, je l'ai déjà rencontrée.

J'ai beaucoup aimé la lettre qu'elle m'a écrite.

Imperative:

The imperative is a mood, similar to the subjunctive, used for giving commands. The imperative can be used with "tu", "nous", and "vous" verb forms, leaving out the subject pronoun (as in English):

Viens ici! ('Come here!')

Prenez votre temps! ('Take your time!')

Restons en groupe. ('Let's stay in a group.')

NB: As this last example suggests, the "nous" command is translated into English "Let's us" -- since the "we" form of the verb in English is not distinctive enough to indicate the first person plural (not the case in French, hence the absence of this introductory phrase in the French command).

Commands with object pronouns: When an affirmative command includes an object pronoun, the word order changes, with the object pronoun following the verb and a hyphen:

Prenez-le! ('Take it!)  Mangez-en! ('Eat some!)  Allez-y ! ('Go there!" or "Go ahead!")

Final "me" and "te" become moi and toi:

Dis-le-moi! ('Tell it to me!)    

This modified word order is also found in commands using reflexive verbs:

Lavez-vous! ('Wash yourself!')   Levez-vous! ('Stand up!)  Lève-toi! ('Stand up!)

(cf. indicative equivalents: Vous vous lavez. Vous vous levez.)

In negative commands, normal (non imperative) word order is used, still omitting the subject though:

Ne vous levez pas! 

Irregular imperative forms:

(1) A small number of common verbs have irregular imperative forms (similar to subjunctive forms): être: sois, soyons, soyez; avoir: aie, ayons, ayez; savoir: sache, sachons, sachez. Also vouloir: veuillez.

(2) Imperative "tu" forms ending in "-es" lose their final "s", except when followed by "en" or "y".

Third person command:

Although it is not strictly possible to give a command to some who is not present (a third party), it is possible to make such a command indirectly by using an "absolute subjunctive" expression, beginning with "que":

Qu'il vienne ici immédiatement ! ('May he come here immediately!' or 'Have him come here…')

Aller ('to go')

present tense: je vais, tu vas, il/elle va; nous allons, vous allez, ils/elles vont

past participle: allé 

auxiliary in compound tenses: être

future/conditional stem: ir-

passé simple: je allai, tu allas, il/elle alla; nous allâmes, vous allâtes, ils/elles allèrent

Near future: like English, French uses the form "aller + infinitive" to paraphrase the future tense (though English uses the present progressive which does not exist in French):

Je vais te dire une chose. ("I'm going to tell you something.")

Idioms:

s'en aller: to leave, get out

Il y va de [ma vie]: '[My life] depends on it."