Pronouns & Determiners in French

What are pronouns and determiners?

Pronouns (pronoms) are words that replace a noun or phrase in a sentence. There are different types of pronouns: personal, (including subject, stressed, object and reflexive pronouns), relative, adverbial, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns.

Examples:
Je mange une glace. (personal pronoun)I’m eating an ice cream.
Tu en parles souvent. (adverbial pronoun)You often talk about it.
Cette veste est la tienne. (possessive pronoun)This jacket is yours.

Determiners (déterminants) are words that accompany a noun and give us information about it – such as whether it’s masculine or feminine, singular or plural, who it belongs to, or how many there are. Examples in English include “the”, “my”, “this” and “some”. In French, determiners include articles (le, la, les, un, une...), as well as possessive, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite determiners.

Examples:
C’est mon ordinateur. (possessive determiner)This is my computer.
Quel est ton film préféré ? (interrogative determiner)What’s your favourite movie?
Nous adorons ce restaurant. (demonstrative determiner)We love this restaurant.

The key difference between a pronoun and a determiner is that a pronoun replaces a noun, whereas a determiner accompanies it.

Example:
– Quel jouet veux-tu ? – Je veux celui-là.– Which toy do you want? – I want that one.
the determiner quel accompanies the noun jouet, while the pronoun celui-là replaces it

Below you’ll find a brief explanation of each type of pronoun and determiner. You’ll also find links to their dedicated pages, each with their own sets of exercises where you can test your knowledge.

Contents

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns (pronoms personnels) are used to refer to people or to replace a noun or phrase that has already been mentioned. The personal pronoun changes depending on its role in the sentence. We distinguish between subject pronouns (je, tu, il…), stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui…) and object pronouns (me, te, le, lui…).

Example:
Eric chante une chanson à Sophie. → Il lui chante une chanson.Éric sings a song to Sophie. → He sings her a song.
il = subject personal pronoun replacing Eric
lui = object personal pronoun replacing à Sophie

Find out when and how to use each personal pronoun on our dedicated page, then practise with our online exercises.

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns (pronoms réfléchis) are a subcategory of the personal pronoun and take the forms me, te, se, nous, vous, se. They’re used with pronominal verbs and always refer back to the subject of the sentence. There are also standalone stressed forms (moi, toi, soi…) that we use in specific situations.

Examples:
Je me réveille tous les jours à 7 heures.I wake up every day at 7 am
pronominal verb se réveiller in the present tense
Assieds-toi !Sit down!
pronominal verb s’asseoir in the imperative

Learn more about reflexive pronouns on our dedicated page, then test your knowledge with our online exercises.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns (pronoms relatifs) are words like “who”, “which” and “that” in English. In French, the most common ones are qui, que, dont and où. They’re used to join two sentences together into one, and to give extra information about a noun without repeating it.

Instead of saying:

Example:
J’ai laissé un gâteau sur la table. Le gâteau a mystérieusement disparu.I left a cake on the table. The cake has mysteriously disappeared.

You can use a relative pronoun to connect them:

Example:
Le gâteau que j’ai laissé sur la table a mystérieusement disparu.The cake that I left on the table has mysteriously disappeared.
que is the relative pronoun, which joins the sentences
que j’ai laissé sur la table is the relative clause – it tells us more about the noun (le gâteau) without starting a new sentence

You’ll find all the essential information on relative pronouns, along with lots of exercises, on our dedicated page.

Adverbial pronouns

In French, there are two adverbial pronouns (pronoms adverbiaux): en and y. They are adverbs used as pronouns, and they replace a noun or phrase in a sentence to avoid repetition – similar to how we use “there” or “of it/them” in English.

Examples:
Tu parles de tes vacances. → Tu en parles.You’re talking about your holidays. → You’re talking about them.
Michel va en Thaïlande. → Michel y va.Michel is going to Thailand. → Michel is going there.

Learn which adverbial pronoun to use and how to place it in a sentence on our dedicated page, then put your knowledge to the test with our online exercises.

Possessive pronouns and determiners

A possessive determiner (déterminant possessif), also called a possessive adjective, is a word that accompanies a noun to show who it belongs to (monmy (m.), mamy (f.), mesmy (pl.), tonyour (m.), tayour (f.), tesyour (pl.), etc.).

Examples:
C’est ma maison.This is my house.
Blue est notre chien.Blue is our dog.
Voici leurs devoirs.Here are their homework assignments.

A possessive pronoun (pronom possessif) is used to show who something belongs to, without repeating the noun. In English, there are words like “mine”, “yours” and “theirs”. In French, they change depending on the gender and number of the noun they replace: le mienmine (m.), la miennemine (f.), les miensmine (pl.), le tienyours (m.), la tienneyours (f.), etc.

Examples:
C’est ma maison. → C’est la mienne.This is my house. → This is mine.
Blue est notre chien. → C’est le nôtre.Blue is our dog. → He is ours.
Voici leurs devoirs. → Ce sont les leurs.Here are their homework assignments. → These are theirs.

You’ll find everything you need to know about possessive pronouns and determiners on our dedicated page, including lots of practice exercises.

Interrogative pronouns and determiners

An interrogative determiner (déterminant interrogatif) is a word that accompanies a noun in order to ask a question about that noun. These are the determiners quelwhich (m.), quellewhich (f.), quelswhich (m. pl.) and quelleswhich (f. pl).

Examples:
Quelle robe préfères-tu ?Which dress do you prefer?
Quel film allons-nous voir ce soir ?Which film are we going to see tonight?
Quels livres avez-vous lus ?Which books have you read?

An interrogative pronoun (pronom interrogatif) is a word that replaces a noun or phrase in a question, without repeating the noun. These include lequelwhich one (m.), laquellewhich one (f.), lesquelswhich ones (m. pl.), lesquelleswhich ones (f. pl.), quiwho, quewhat, quoiwhat, etc.

Examples:
Quelle robe préfères-tu ? → Laquelle préfères-tu ?Which dress do you prefer? → Which one do you prefer?
Quel film allons-nous voir ce soir ? → Lequel allons-nous voir ?Which film are we going to see tonight? → Which one are we going to see?
Quels livres avez-vous lus ? → Lesquels avez-vous lus ?Which books have you read? → Which ones have you read?

Check out our dedicated page on interrogative pronouns and determiners, then put your knowledge to the test in our practice exercises.

Demonstrative pronouns and determiners

A demonstrative determiner (déterminant démonstratif) is a word that accompanies a noun and is used to point out or specify exactly what we’re talking about. These include cethis (m.), cetthis (m.), cettethis (f.) and cesthis (pl.).

Examples:
J’aime cette chanson.I love this song.
Il lit ce livre.He is reading this book.
Regarde ces étoiles !Look at those stars!

A demonstrative pronoun (pronom démonstratif) replaces a noun to avoid repeating it – just like how in English we say “I like this one” instead of “I like this song” again. In French, these pronouns include çathis, cecithis, celathat, celui-cithis one (m.), celle-cithis one (f.), ceux-cithese ones (m. pl.), celles-cithese ones (f. pl.), etc.

Examples:
J’aime cette chanson. → J’aime celle-ci.I love this song. → I love this one.
Il lit ce livre. → Il lit celui-ci.He’s reading this book. → He’s reading this one.
Regarde ces étoiles ! → Regarde celles-là.Look at those stars! → Look at those ones.

Find everything you need to know about demonstrative pronouns and determiners on our dedicated page, then put your knowledge to the test with our online exercises.

Indefinite pronouns and determiners

An indefinite determiner (déterminant indéfini) is a word that accompanies a noun to indicate an unspecified quantity or amount. Examples include chaqueevery, certainssome, quelquessome, aucunno, toutall, every and plusieurssome.

Examples:
J’ai lu chaque livre de la bibliothèque.I’ve read every book in the library.
Il a invité certains amis.He invited some friends.
Nous avons mangé tous les gâteaux.We ate all the cakes.

An indefinite pronoun (pronom indéfini) replaces a noun to avoid repeating it – just as you’d say “some of them” or “all of them” in English instead of naming the noun again. Examples include aucunnone, quelqu’unsomeone, certainssome, tousall, plusieurssome, chacuneveryone, etc.

Examples:
Il y avait quelques erreurs dans le texte. → Il y en avait quelques-unes.There were some mistakes in the text. → There were a few of them.
Il a invité certains amis. → Il en a invité certains.He invited some friends. → He invited some of them.
Nous avons mangé tous les gâteaux. → Nous les avons tous mangés.We ate all the cakes. → We ate all of them.

Remember, the key difference between pronouns and determiners is that a determiner accompanies a noun, whereas a pronoun replaces it.

Examples:
Je vois tous les villages depuis la montagne.I can see all the villages from the mountain.
tous = indefinite determiner meaning “all” → it accompanies the noun les villages without specifying which ones
Je vois tout depuis la montagne.I can see everything from the mountain.
tout = indefinite pronoun meaning “everything” → there’s no noun after it, which makes it a pronoun

You’ll find everything you need to know about indefinite pronouns and determiners on our dedicated page, which includes lots of practice exercises.

Learn more about pronouns and determiners

You’ll find here the links to each article, along with a variety of practice exercises: