Lesson 2 : Personal pronouns

 

     
The pronouns are the words that are used for replacing a noun or a noun phrase. We have many kinds of pronouns. Among them we can quote the personal pronouns

A- personal pronouns

1- personal pronouns ( subject )
They are : ( I, You, he, she, it, we, you, they) .
NB: " he" is used for a male person. "She" is used for a female person. " it" is used for animals, objects, things.
Let's find the meaning in French.
I = je       you = tu    he = il    she = elle    it = ça ou c'.                                                                
We = nous    you = vous    they = ils ou elles.
These personal pronouns are used for replacing someone or something that does or did something. Example :  Marina goes to market.  Marina = she. We can therefore say She goes to market. It's Marina that does the action to go to market. So Marina can be replaced by a personal pronoun and as " she " is used for a female person we use " she" if Marina is a female person.
Ex 2: I eat a potato ( je mange une pomme de terre ). " I " is therefore the subject as far as it does the action of eating a potato. Contrary to the personal pronouns object which undergoes the action.

 2- personal pronouns object.

 The personal pronouns are used to replace the nouns that undergo an action.
They are ( me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them). Let's find the meanings into French.
me = moi, me, m'       You = toi, te, t'    him = lui, le, l'    her = elle, la, l'      it = ça.    You = vous           us = nous     them = les, eux, elles. Let's give some examples .
Ali beats Amidou. Ali can be replaced by "he and Amidou by him .
Ali = he ,     Amidou = him  ( he beats him ). Ali frappe Amidou = il frappe lui ce qui donne il le frappe.
Just follow : Ali is the one who does the action and Amidou is the one who undergoes it. Ali is therefore taken as the subject and Amidou the object.

           Application

Replace these nouns in these sentences by a personal pronoun follow the example.
Maimouna knows Awa.    Maimouna = She.    Awa = her.
Awa knows Maimouna.    Awa = She.    Maimouna = her.  In the sentence 1 Maimouna is the subject and Awa is the object. Because it's Maimouna that does the action and Awa  undergoes it, but in the sentence 2 it is the contrary.
Let's train ourselves.
Koffi's children are nicer than Amidou's wives.
1 - they.     2 - them. We can therefore say ; they are nicer than them.
Les enfants de koffi's sont plus gentils que les femmes d'Amidou.
Ils sont plus gentils qu'elles.

EXERCISE ; Replace these underlined words by some personal pronouns.

1 - My mother cooks the meal.
2 - the teacher is teaching the students.
3 - the students are taught by the teacher.
4 - Ali knows Alice.
5 - Alice has known Ali.
 RESPONSE ;  1- .........      ...............
                        2 - ..........    ...............
                        3 - ..........    ..............
                        4 - ...........    .............
                        5 - .............      ...........