Whether it’s in French or in English, les pronoms (pronouns) belong to one of those classes grammaticales that many people seem to often have a hard time remembering what they are, or what they are supposed to stand for.

Here in The French Blog, the goal is always to try -and, hopefully, succeed too- to give you the best astuces (tricks) to learn something well—and remember it for good!

* Qu’est-ce que les pronoms (What are pronouns), au juste (precisely)? Acording to etymonline.com, the definition of a pronoun is as follows:pronoun 1520s, from pro- and noun; modeled on M.Fr. pronom, from L. pronomen, from pro- “in place of” + nomen “name, noun.” A loan-translation of Gk. antonymia. Adj. pronomial is recorded from 1640s. Like Jean-Paul Belmondo, quickly become “un vrai pro” des pronoms (Become a “real pro” of pronouns)!

From this definition, we can see clearly that un pronom is in fact breakable like this:

PRONOM = PRO + NOM

(PRONOUN = PRO + NOUN)

Meaning that its purpose is to REPLACE A NOUN!

* Prenons un exemple (let us take an example):

– “J’aime beaucoup le French Blog. Le French Blog est le seul Blog en français dont le contenu offre autant de variété!” (Meaning: “I like the French Blog. The French Blog is the only Blog in French whose content offers as much variety!”) 🙂

As you noticed, un pronom (a pronoun) would serve the purpose of avoiding la répétition.

So instead of the previous phrase (sentence), it is possible to replace “le French Blog” by a pronoun that would assume the same genre (gender) and nombre (number), which in this case are masculin for the former, and singulier for the latter:

– “J’aime beaucoup le French Blog. Il est le seul Blog en français dont le contenu offre autant de variété!” (Meaning: “I like the French Blog. The French Blog is the only Blog in French whose content offers as much variety!”) 🙂

* Here’s a non-exhaustive list of pronoms, classified by categories (Notice that one pronoun can belong to more than just one category!):

• Les pronoms personnels sujets: Je , tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles, on

• Les pronoms personnels compléments: me, moi, te, toi, le, la, lui, nous, vous, leur, eux, en, y

• Les pronoms interrogatifs: To introduce a question! Qui, que, quoi, où, quel, lequel, quels, quelle, quelles

• Les pronoms possessifs: Le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes; le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes; le sien, la sienne, les siens, les siennes; le nôtre, les nôtres; le vôtre, les vôtres; le leur, les leurs

• Les pronoms démonstratifs: Notice that they all start with the letter “C”! Celui, celui-ci, celui-là; ceux, ceux-ci, ceux-là; celle, celle-ci, celle-là; celles-ci, celles-là; ce, ceci, cela, ça

• Les pronoms relatifs: Quoi, que, qui, dont, où, lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles; duquel, de laquelle, desquels, desquelles; auquel, à laquelle, auxquels, auxquelles

• Les pronoms indéfinis: Aucun, d’aucun, certain, chacun, l’un, l’autre, le même, maint, plus d’un, quelqu’un, tel, tout, un autre, autrui, personne, plusieurs, quiconque