How to Teach French Double Pronouns – A French Teacher’s Guide
When students begin using French pronouns, they quickly realize how useful they are. Pronouns keep them from having to repeat the same nouns over and over again and make their French sound much more natural.
By the time I introduce double pronouns, my students have already learned direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and the adverbial pronouns Y and EN.
That’s when I introduce the idea that sometimes they need to use more than one pronoun in the same sentence.
The good news is that they already know the individual pronouns. The new challenge is learning the order in which the pronouns go and where to place them in the sentence.
French Double Pronouns – Foldable Student Lesson Handout Book
Scroll down to the section at the end of this post to see my ready-to-use resources for French double pronouns.
Start with What Students Already Know
I begin by reminding students of the pronouns they already know:
me, te, nous, vous
le, la, les
lui, leur
y
en
I explain that when we use more than one pronoun, the order is very important.
French doesn’t allow students to simply put the pronouns in whatever order seems logical. The pronouns follow a standard sequence.
Teach the Normal Pronoun Order
This is the part I want students to really learn.
The normal order of pronouns is:
ME / TE / NOUS / VOUS → LE / LA / LES → LUI / LEUR → Y → EN
I have students learn this order before asking them to produce many sentences.
I want them to recognize that the pronouns have specific positions. If a sentence requires two pronouns, students need to identify where each pronoun belongs in this sequence.
For example, leur comes before en.
That gives us:
Je leur en lis (une).
Rather than asking students to memorize this entire sentence, I have them think about what each pronoun represents.
Show Students Why We Sometimes Need Two Pronouns
I start with a sentence that contains the nouns students will eventually replace.
Je lis une histoire aux enfants.
I am reading a story to the children.
First, we can replace aux enfants with leur:
Je leur lis une histoire.
Then we can replace une histoire with en:
Je leur en lis une.
I am reading them one.
This is an important step because I want students to understand that the pronouns aren’t random little words that have to be memorized together.
Each pronoun is replacing something.
Once students understand what each pronoun is doing, the order becomes much easier to understand.
Practice the Present Tense First
I begin with the present tense because students can see the basic pattern clearly.
The pronouns come before the main verb:
Je leur en lis une.
I have students practice identifying the two parts of the sentence that can be replaced and then choosing the appropriate pronouns.
At this stage, I’m less concerned with having students produce complicated sentences and more concerned with making sure they understand the process.
They need to be able to ask themselves:
What am I replacing?
Which pronoun do I need?
Where does that pronoun go in the pronoun sequence?
Where does the pronoun group go in the sentence?
That process will help them when we move into other tenses.
Add Negation
Once students are comfortable with double pronouns in affirmative sentences, I introduce the negative form.
I start with:
Je ne lis pas d’histoire aux enfants.
I am not reading a story to the children.
Then we replace the nouns:
Je ne leur en lis pas (une).
I am not reading them one.
This is a useful sentence because students can see that the two pronouns remain together.
The pronouns come before the verb, while pas comes after the pronoun group and before the verb.
I don’t try to introduce every possible complication at once. I want students to become comfortable with the basic pattern first.
Move to the Passé Composé
Once students understand the present-tense pattern, I move to the passé composé.
This is where I remind students that pronouns come before the helping verb.
I begin with:
J’ai lu une histoire aux enfants.
I read a story to the children.
Then I replace the nouns:
Je leur en ai lu une.
I read them one.
I have students compare the two sentences.
In the original sentence:
J’ai lu…
With the double pronouns:
Je leur en ai lu…
The pronouns come before ai, the helping verb.
I then add the negative:
Je n’ai pas lu d’histoire aux enfants.
Je ne leur en ai pas lu.
This gives students practice with several familiar concepts at the same time: pronoun order, pronoun placement, the passé composé, and negation.
Move to the Futur Proche
After students have practiced the present tense and passé composé, I introduce double pronouns with the futur proche.
I start with:
Je vais lire une histoire aux enfants.
I am going to read a story to the children.
Then:
Je vais leur en lire une.
I am going to read them one.
This is another important placement pattern for students to notice.
In the futur proche, the pronouns go before the infinitive.
The sentence is:
Je vais leur en lire une.
The pronouns do not go before vais. They go before lire.
I then give students the negative version:
Je ne vais pas lire une histoire aux enfants.
Je ne vais pas leur en lire une.
This gives students another opportunity to practice both pronoun order and placement.
Compare the Different Tenses
I find that students benefit from seeing the same basic idea across different tenses.
Present:
Je leur en lis une.
Passé composé:
Je leur en ai lu une.
Futur proche:
Je vais leur en lire une.
The pronouns themselves have not changed.
What changes is where the pronoun group is placed in relation to the verb.
This is an important distinction. Students don’t need to memorize a completely different pronoun pattern for each tense. They need to understand the basic pronoun order and then recognize where the verb is located in each tense.
Have Students Transform Sentences
I like sentence transformation exercises for this topic because they make students think about what each pronoun is replacing.
I can begin with:
Je lis une histoire aux enfants.
Students first replace one element:
Je leur lis une histoire.
Then they replace the second:
Je leur en lis une.
Once they are comfortable with that, I can ask them to work with the same sentence in another tense:
Je leur en ai lu une.
And then:
Je vais leur en lire une.
This gives students a very controlled progression. They are not trying to create an entirely new sentence while simultaneously figuring out pronoun order.
Have Students Identify What Each Pronoun Replaces
One of the things I emphasize when teaching pronouns in general is that students need to understand what the pronoun represents.
That becomes even more important when they have two pronouns together.
With:
Je leur en lis une.
I want students to understand that leur refers to the people receiving something, while en replaces the thing being referred to.
This makes the sentence much more logical.
Instead of seeing:
leur + en + lis
students can begin to see the sentence as a series of substitutions.
That is the approach I find most helpful when students are overwhelmed by several small pronouns appearing together.
Don’t Try to Teach Everything at Once
Double pronouns can look intimidating, especially when students first see several pronouns next to each other.
I find it much more effective to build the lesson gradually.
First, review the individual pronouns.
Then introduce the normal pronoun order.
Next, practice two pronouns in the present tense.
Then add negation.
After that, move into the passé composé and futur proche.
At each stage, I have students return to the same basic questions:
Which nouns are being replaced?
Which pronouns do I need?
What is the correct pronoun order?
Where should the pronoun group go?
That gives students a process they can use instead of asking them to memorize isolated sentences.
Help Students See the Pattern
I want students to leave a double-pronoun lesson understanding that they already know most of what they need.
They know the pronouns.
Now they are learning how to combine them.
They know that pronouns normally precede the verbs they modify.
Now they are learning where the pronoun group goes when there is more than one pronoun and when the verb is in a different tense.
Once students see those connections, double pronouns become much less intimidating.
There is certainly more to learn later, including the different placement that students will encounter with affirmative commands. But I don’t introduce that complication until students are comfortable with the normal pronoun order.
For me, the goal at this stage is simple: students should be able to look at a sentence with two pronouns and understand why the pronouns are there, why they are in that order, and why they are in that particular position in the sentence.
Now It’s Time To Practice!
French double pronouns take several skills that students have already learned and combine them into one structure. Giving students plenty of opportunities to identify the nouns being replaced, choose the correct pronouns, practice the pronoun order, and work with different tenses helps make the pattern much more manageable.
If you’d like ready-to-use resources to give your students additional practice with French pronouns, you can find them here.
French Double Pronouns – Foldable Student Lesson Handout Book
French Double Pronouns – French Grammar Activity
French Double Pronouns – À vos marques, prêts, partez!
French Double Pronouns – PowerPoint Jeopardy Game
French Double Pronouns – BUNDLE
