Exceptions to using indirect personal pronoun

Anne D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Exceptions to using indirect personal pronoun

The group à + [people] becomes simply their matching indirect pronoun, as follows:

Don’t certain verbs require a tonic (stress) pronoun after à, rather than the indirect object pronoun before the verb ? 

For example - "Je pense à vous" "Tu dois faire attention à lui"

Asked 3 years ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Anne,

That's a very good question! You are right that ‘penser à [sb] / faire attention à [sb]’ don’t work the same. They are part of a list of verbs with which you can’t replace ‘à + noun’ with an indirect object pronoun. Instead you use a stress pronoun:

je pense à Sophieje pense à elle

I think about Sophie → I think about her

je m’adresse à mes amis → je m’adresse à eux

I speak to my friends → I speak to them

Similar verbs: penser à, aller à, avoir affaire à, être à (=to belong to [sb]), recourir à, se fier à, faire attention à, s'adresser à, s’intéresser à etc.

Also, see link: Penser à + [qch] - penser de [qch]

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Exceptions to using indirect personal pronoun

The group à + [people] becomes simply their matching indirect pronoun, as follows:

Don’t certain verbs require a tonic (stress) pronoun after à, rather than the indirect object pronoun before the verb ? 

For example - "Je pense à vous" "Tu dois faire attention à lui"

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