IOP DOP Y En Word Order for One Verb, Two Verb, and Composed Tenses
May 1, 2011 § 7 Comments
Not all sentences have every pronoun listed. But the idea is to know which go in which order in case you have more than one pronoun. A helpful thing would be to memorize two or three phrases that have more than one pronoun in them so that you will always remember which go in which order. For those of you in my class, you have your “cheat sheet” notecards. Use them!!
Je te les envoie – I’m sending them to you.
Je les lui donne. – I’m giving them to him
Il n’y en a plus – There isn’t any more of it/them
Je vais y aller – I’m going there.
J’y suis allé – I went there.
1. For one verb tenses, this is the order of the pronouns between the subject and the verb.
| subject | ne | reflexive pronoun | indirect object pronoun | direct object pronoun | indirect object pronoun | y | en | verb | pas |
| me | me | me | lui | (and other | |||||
| te | te | te | leur | negation | |||||
| se | nous | le / la | terms) | ||||||
| nous | vous | nous | |||||||
| vous | vous | ||||||||
| se | les |
Nous leur racontons l’histoire. We’re telling the story to them.
Nous la racontons aux enfants. We’re telling it to the children.
Tu m’aides. You are helping me.
Ils vous offrent les fleurs . They are offering the flowers to you.
Ils vous les offrent. They are offering them to you.
2. For 2 verb sentences, you place the pronoun in front of the verb that affects it, which ends up being the 2nd verb / infinitive.
| subject | ne | verb | pas | reflexive | IOP | DOP | IOP | y | en | infinitive | rest of sentence |
| me | me | me | lui | ||||||||
| te | te | te | leur | ||||||||
| se | nous | le/la | |||||||||
| nous | vous | nous | |||||||||
| vous | vous | ||||||||||
| se | les |
Je veux y aller.
Tu dois le faire.
Il va en acheter.
For the composed tenses (with an auxiliary verb and a past participle – passé composé, plus que parfait, etc.)
| subject | ne | reflexive pronoun | IOP | DOP | IOP | y | en | auxiliary verb | pas | past participle | rest of sentence |
| me | me | me | lui | être | |||||||
| te | te | te | leur | avoir | |||||||
| se | nous | le/la | |||||||||
| nous | vous | nous | |||||||||
| vous | les | ||||||||||
| se |
*In these tenses there are a few minor details that I haven’t included here, but this is the word order.
Je l’ai acheté – I bought it
Je te les ai données – I gave them to you
Ils les y ont vendus – They sold them there
** NOTE – for negative sentences in passé composé, make sure to double check the placement of the pas / negative words (plus, jamais, pas encore, personne, que, etc.)
French Notes 
Could you please give some examples for 2 verbs with infinitive?
Done. Thanks for asking!
this site is excellent .. i am doing some graduate-level work in classics and French – and the material here is excellent.
Wowie zowie! Thank you!!!!
If there’s anything you’re ever working with or have questions on, just holler.
How does it work for reflexive verbs? I want to say ‘to ensure the existence of it in the long term..’
Do I say ‘pour s’en assurer l’existence…’
or ‘pour en s’assurer l’existence…’
Thanks 🙂
S’en assurer. En is always last. 🙂