French Lesson 1: Personal Pronouns - Present tense - Interrogative forms

A Personal pronoun can have several functions in a sentence. Its form may vary according to its function.

Subject

• First singular person: Je
• Second singular person: Tu
• Masculine third singular person: Il
• Feminine third singular person: Elle
• Third singular person: On*
• First plural person: Nous
• Second plural person: Vous**
• Masculine third plural person: Ils
• Feminine third plural person: Elles

* On may mean I, you, he ..., someone, anyone. Although it can replace any personal pronoun, it is mainly used instead of nous (we).

**Vous, the second person of the plural is used to address an interlocutor you don't know very well, or to whom you are subordinated, by age or hierarchy.

Object

A pronoun can be a direct or an indirect object.
A personal pronoun that is an indirect objet may have two forms. They are not equivalent.

Reminder: a direct object (first object) is not introduced by a preposition.
In item 14 "mon ami John" is the direct object of the verbal form "appelle".
A transitive verb accepts a direct object; an intransitive verb does not.
A verb that accepts an object doesn't necessarily require it.
In a reflexive verb, the subject and the direct object refer to the same grammatical person. In item 1: "je" and "me" refer to the same person.
In a reciprocal verb, the subject and the object refer to different persons. In item 16, se refer to Motaz and John (they call each other).

Elision: Before a vowel the -e that ends a pronoun (if it is usually pronounced) is dropped and replaced by an apostrophe (see items 1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The grammatical function is not altered.
There is also an elision of the -a in the pronoun la, in the same occasions.
Example: in Pierre appelle Gabrielle, when Gabrielle is replaced with a feminine pronoun, you read: Pierre l'appelle,
but in Pierre présente Gabrielle, when the first name is replaced, you read: Pierre la présente. In this last case, la is not before a vowel, so there is no elision.
There is no apostrophe at the end of elle because the final -e is never pronounced, whatever the letter that follows.

In affirmative sentences, a pronoun has got a fixed place: before the verb; but the disjunctive pronoun, as its name suggests, can be separated from the verb; it works like a common noun phrase: it is allowed to travel, even alone (item 1: et vous?)

When there is me, te, se, nous, vous as a direct object pronoun before the verb, we use a disjunctive pronoun to express the indirect object.
Example: Motaz me présente à John => Motaz me présente à lui

A problem of gender

Compare items 9, 10 and 11.
When the subject is feminine, we use a feminine pronoun: elle for singular, elles for plural.
When the subject is masculine, we use a masculine pronoun: il for singular, ils for plural.
When there are both masculine and feminine subjects in a sentence, the masculine pronoun is used: ils.

Summary and examples of how to use Personal Pronouns.

Don't give up!
The first two lessons deal with the most difficult French grammar points. The French set of pronouns is particularly rich; but it's nonsense to learn je (I) on Monday, me (myself) on Tuesday, moi (me) on Wednesday, etc.

Most French verbs exist in both plain and pronominal forms. The meanings may be different. Examples:
rappeler = to call back, se rappeler = to remember
jouer = to play, se jouer = to deceive.
There are two kinds of pronominal verbs: reflexive (items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
and reciprocical (item 16).
Their forms are the same.

Present tense

The -er verbs, that is to say: the verbs that end with -er in their infinitive form, are regular, except aller (to go) and envoyer (to send) and form 95% of French verbs.
So, chanter (to sing) is perfectly regular and is the conjugation pattern for 95% of French verbs.

• Je chante
• Tu chantes
• Il, elle, on chante
• Nous chantons
• Vous chantez
• Ils, elles chantent

Variations

-er verbs which have -é in the last syllab of the stem, change -é to -è in all forms except the nous and vous forms. The model is espérer (to hope).
Following the model of acheter (to buy), some -er verbs which contain -e in the last vowel of the stem change -é to -è in all forms except the nous and vous forms,
except, particularly, appeler (to call) and jeter (to throw) which double the final consonant of the stem, in all forms except the nous and vous forms.

There are several ways to ask questions in French. Let's begin with the easiest ones.

You pronounce an affirmative statement with a rising intonation and add a question mark when writing.

Vous vous appelez Motaz? (listen item 8)

You add "Est-ce que" at the beginning of the statement when the answer is in the question, at least, when you think that it is the right answer.

Est-ce que vous vous appelez Motaz?

You add n'est-ce pas? at the end of the statement when you expect an affirmative answer.

Tu t'appelles Motaz, n'est-ce pas?

You invert the pronoun subject and the verb (rare with je).

Comment vous appelez-vous?)

The pronouns: il, elle, on begin with a vowel and -er verbs end with a vowel in the third person;
to avoid confusion, when a question is asked by inverting the pronoun subject and the verb, we add the letter t that allows a liaison to be made:
item 6: comment vous appelle-t-on?
The same rule applies when you report direct discourse, when the verb of expression follows the reported speech:
"Comment vous appelez-vous?" demande-t-elle.