The French personal pronouns (analogous to English I, me, you, and so on) reflect the person and number of their referent, and in the case of the third person, its gender as well (much like English's distinction between him and her, except that French draws this distinction among inanimate nouns as well). They also reflect the role they play in their clause: subject, direct object, indirect object, or other.

The personal pronouns display a number of grammatical particularities and complications not found in their English counterparts: some of them can only be used in certain circumstances; some of them change form depending on surrounding words; and their placement is largely unrelated to the placement of the nouns they replace.

As noted above, the personal pronouns change form to reflect the role they play in their clause. The forms used for subjects are called the subject pronouns, subjective pronouns, or nominative pronouns. They are as follows:

1. Before a vowel, je contracts to j'. (See elision.)
2. But see the section on the pronoun on, below.
3. Except when the predicate is être ("to be") plus a noun; in that case, ce is used (c' if before a vowel). For example, « C'est un homme intelligent », "He's a smart man." This is because the referent has not yet been assigned a gender (since gender depends on the word used). Ce is also used if there is no specific referent; for example, « J'ai passé le soir avec Jean. C'était amusant », "I spent the evening with John. It was fun," where ce does not refer to the evening so much as to having spent it with John.
4. In French, a group containing at least one masculine noun is treated as masculine plural, and hence is referred to using ils. If the group consists solely of feminine nouns, elles is used.

The subject pronouns map to the direct-object (accusative) pronouns as follows:

• first person:
  • je → me¹
  • nous → nous²
• second person:
  • tu → te¹
  • vous → vous
• third person:
  • il → le^1,3,4
  • elle → la^1,3,4
  • ils, elles → les^3,4

1. Before a vowel, the pronouns me, te, le, and la contract to m', t', l', and l', respectively. (See elision.)
2. But see the section on the pronoun on, below.
3. Like the English him, her, it, and them, the pronouns le, la, and les are only used with definite direct objects. For indefinite ones (e.g., "some juice"), en is used; see below.
4. Le, la, and les are not used when the direct object refers to the same entity as the subject; see the section on the reflexive pronouns, below.

Examples:

• (I have a book.) I'm giving it to the teacher. « Je le donne au prof. »
• (Danielle is my sister.) Have you seen her? « Est-ce que tu l'as vue? »

The term complément d'objet indirect is generally translated to English as indirect object, but is rather different from an English indirect object. In French, an indirect object is an object of a verb that is introduced using a preposition (especially the preposition à), whether or not the verb has any other objects. For example, in the sentence « J'ai parlé à Jean » ("I spoke to Jean"), Jean is the indirect object in the French sentence, even though there is no indirect object in the English sentence.

Indirect-object pronouns (or dative pronouns) generally only replace indirect objects with the preposition à; and even then, not always; see below. When an indirect object pronoun is used, it replaces the entire prepositional phrase; for example, « Je lui ai donné un livre » ("I gave him a book").

The subject pronouns map to the indirect-object pronouns as follows:

• first person:
  • je → me¹
  • nous → nous²
• second person:
  • tu → te¹
  • vous → vous
• third person:
  • il, elle → lui, y^3,4
  • ils, elles → leur, y^3,4

1. Before a vowel, the pronouns me and te contract to m' and t', respectively. (See elision.)
2. But see the section on the pronoun on, below.
3. Broadly speaking, lui and leur are used in referring to people, and y is used in referring to things; however, lui and leur will sometimes also be used in referring to things. (Y also means "there"; see the section on y, below.)
4. Lui, leur, and y are replaced with se (s' before a vowel) when the indirect object refers to the same entity as the subject; see the section on the reflexive pronouns, below.

As mentioned above, the indirect object pronouns are not always used to replace indirect objects:

• They are not used when the preposition is de rather than à; but see the section on the pronoun en, below.
• Except for y, they are not used with certain verbs, such as penser ("to think about") and all reflexive verbs (see the section on reflexive pronouns, below). For example, one says, « Je me fie à lui » ("I put my trust in him"), not « * Je me lui fie ».

In French, as in English, reflexive pronouns are used in place of direct- and indirect-object pronouns that refer to the same entity or entities as the subject. A verb with a reflexive pronoun is called a reflexive verb, and has many grammatical particularities aside from the choice of pronoun; see French verbs.

There are four kinds of reflexive verbs:

1. Verbs that are inherently reflexive. For example, the verb se souvenir ("to remember") has no non-reflexive counterpart; the verb souvenir has no meaning on its own.
2. Verbs whose direct or indirect objects refer to the same entities as their subjects. For example, « Je m'achèterai cela » ("I'll buy myself that") is just a special case of « Je lui achèterai cela » ("I'll buy him that") that happens to be reflexive.
3. Verbs indicating reciprocal actions. For example, « Ils se parlent » simply means "they're talking to each other."
4. Verbs indicating a passive action. For example, one might say, « La porte s'ouvre », which literally means, "The door is opening itself," but really means, "The door is opening."

All four kinds use the reflexive pronouns, and exhibit the grammatical particularities of reflexive verbs.

The subject pronouns map to the reflexive pronouns as follows:

• first person:
  • je → me¹
  • nous → nous²
• second person:
  • tu → te¹
  • vous → vous
• third person:
  • il, elle, ils, elles → se¹

1. Before a vowel, the pronouns me, te, and se contract to m', t', and s', respectively. (See elision.)
2. But see the section on the pronoun on, below.

As odd as it may seem, the French do say « Nous nous voyons tous les jours » ("We see each other daily"), thus repeating twice nous (or vous). An alternate way would be to say this would be "On se voit tous les jours."

A disjunctive pronoun is so called because it is used when the pronoun is completely disjointed from the sentence, and has no clear relationship to the verb or any preposition. For example, in the English sentence, "Me, I believe you, but I'm not sure anyone else will," me is a disjunctive pronoun.

In French, the disjunctive pronouns are also used in a few other circumstances:

• they are used as the objects of prepositions: « Je le fais pour toi », "I'm doing it for you."
• they are used with copulas as subject complements: « C'est toi qui as tort », "It is you who are wrong."
• they are used in compound noun phrases, even as the subjects of verbs: « Jean et moi sommes américains », "John and I are American" (though one might equally say, « Jean et moi, nous sommes américains »).
• they are used as emphatic subjects: « Lui sait le faire », "He knows how to do it" (though one might equally say, « Lui, il sait le faire »).

The subject pronouns map to the disjunctive pronouns as follows:

• first person:
  • je → moi
  • nous → nous¹
• second person:
  • tu → toi
  • vous → vous
• third person:
  • il → lui²
  • elle → elle²
  • ils → eux²
  • elles → elles²

1. But see the section on the pronoun on, below.
2. Except if the pronoun is the object of a preposition, and refers to the same entity as the subject; in this case, use soi. For example, « Un voyageur sait faire comme chez soi n'importe où », "A traveller knows how to make himself at home anywhere." Note that this does not make the verb reflexive.

The pronoun y has two distinct uses:

• It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things introduced by the preposition à. For more on this use, see above.
• It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase. In this sense, it might be translated as there. For example:
  • « Je vais à Paris. » → « J'y vais. » ("I'm going to Paris." → "I'm going there.")
  • « Est-ce que tu travailles dans ce bureau ? — Non, je n'y travaille plus. » ("Do you work in that office? — No, I don't work there anymore.")

The pronoun en has three uses:

• It is the indirect-object pronoun used with things (including infinitives) introduced by the preposition de. It is also sometimes used in the same way with people:
  • « Je parle du problème. » → « J'en parle. » ("I'm talking about the problem." → "I'm talking about it.")
  • « Je parle de Jean. » → « J'en parle. » or « Je parle de lui. » ("I'm talking about Jean." → "I'm talking about him.")
• It is used to replace a spatial prepositional phrase introduced by de ("from"). In this sense, it might be translated as from there:
  • « Je viens de France. » → « J'en viens. » ("I come from France." → "I come from there.")
• It is the direct-object pronoun used to replace indefinite direct objects; that is, direct objects that are introduced with the partitive article (including the plural indefinite article), a number (including the singular indefinite article), or another expression of quantity (usually an adverb + de). In this case, any number or adverb is left in place, while any partitive article or de is subsumed into the pronoun:
  • « J'ai bu du jus de pomme. » → « J'en ai bu. » ("I drank some apple juice." → "I drank some.")
  • « J'ai mangé une pomme. » → « J'en ai mangé une. » ("I ate an apple." → "I ate one.")
  • « J'ai vendu beaucoup de jus de pomme. » → « J'en ai vendu beaucoup. » ("I sold a lot of apple juice." → "I sold a lot.")
  • « J'ai acheté trois kilogrammes de pommes. » → « J'en ai acheté trois kilogrammes. » ("I bought three kilograms of apples." → "I bought three kilograms.")

The subject pronoun on is analogous to the English personal pronoun one, except that it is not so formal, and is more common. It has a number of uses:

• It is used in the same ways as the English personal pronoun one:
  • It is used in expressing generalities: « C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron. » ("It is by blacksmithing that one becomes a blacksmith.")
  • It is the implicit subject for an infinitive that has no other implicit subject: « penser qu'on a raison » ("to think that one is right," i.e. "to think oneself right").
• Because of French's limited passive voice, it is often used as an empty subject when the agent is unknown or unimportant: « On me l'a donné. » (literally, "[On] gave it to me"; i.e., "I was given it" or "It was given to me.") (But see the discussion of reflexive pronouns, above.)
• It is used as a less formal substitute for the subject pronoun nous (we). In this case, note that even though on always takes a third-person singular verb, it takes plural adjectives (« On est américains », "We're American"). Also, note that the other forms of nous (direct object, indirect object, and disjunctive) are not replaced by forms of on unless on is the subject as well. (Hence, « Ils nous l'ont acheté », "They bought it for us," but « On se l'est acheté », "We bought it for ourselves.")
• It is not the number 1, and therefore is not used to mean "one of them." In French as in English, numbers can be used as pronouns — « Deux sont entrés et un est ressorti », "Two went in and one came back out" — but the number 1 is un(e), not on. (But see the section on the pronoun en, above.)

On does not have ordinary direct- and indirect-object pronouns, only the reflexive pronoun se. Similarly, its disjunctive-pronoun form, soi, is only used when on is the subject and soi refers to the same entity. The pronoun quelqu'un ("someone") can fill some of the roles of on, in the same way that one and someone are sometimes interchangeable in English.