COD/COI/Y/En: Guide to Replacements

Both COD and COI

Certain words are both direct and indirect objects. They are:
What are they What do they mean
Me Me, to me
Te You, to you
Se Him/her/them, to him/her/them
Nous Us, to us
Vous You (formal), to you

Direct Objects (COD)

What are they What do they replace What do they mean

Le Nouns that have le, la, l or les before It
La them Him
Les Names of people and things (Paul, Kim, Her
L Paris, Buffalo) Them
Mon/ta/ses/notre/vos/leurs etc. They
ce/cette/ces (possessive and
demonstrative adjectives)

Indirect Objects (COI)

What are they What do they replace What do they mean

Lui A + person Him
Leur Au + person Her
+ possessive pronoun + person To him
To her

What is it What does it replace What do they mean

Y Prepositions + nouns There
Examples: au club, chez Paul, en France, It
sur la table, dans ma chambre, la fac
NEVER people and NEVER de

En

What is it What do they replace What do they mean

En De + noun (des, du, de l, de la) Some
Un/une There
Numbers (deux, trois, neuf, etc) It
Quantities (beaucoup, trop, peu)
Forming Sentences

When using pronoun replacements, the following formulas:

Formulas:
Tense Formula Example
Present Subject + Pronoun + conjugated verb Je vois mes amis.
( Sub + ne+ Pronoun + verb + pas) Je les vois.

Infinitive Subject + conjugated verb + Pronoun + infinitive Elle va acheter des tomates.
(Sub + ne + verb+ pas + Pronoun + infinitive) Elle va en achter.

Pass Subject + Pronoun + auxiliary verb + past participle Il est all en Chine.
Compos* (Sub + ne + Pronoun + aux + pas + pp) Il y est all.

*One thing to note is that with COD in the past, if the COD is replacing a feminine or (feminine) plural
object, the past participle will agree with the COD.

Example:
Jai mang la tarte (I ate the pie). La tarte = feminine. Replaced with La. Thus: Je lai mange.
(You drop the a because you would have 2 as next to each other if not).

Ils ont oublis leurs livres (They forgot their books). Books = masculine plural. Replaced with
les. Thus: Ils les ont oublis.

Multiple Replacements

1 2 3 4 5
Me Le Lui Y En
Te La Leur
Se Les
Nous L
Vous

Examples:

1. Je donne des crayons mon ami. Je lui en donne.

2. Elle ne va pas dire la vrit toi et moi. Elle ne va pas nous la dire.

3. Ils ont achet la pizza en ville. Ils ly ont achete.