In short

When two object pronouns appear together before the verb, French puts them in a fixed order, not the order you would guess from English. The core rule: me/te/se/nous/vous come first, then le/la/les, then lui/leur, then y, then en.

The rule

You already know the single pronouns (see Lesson 23 for COD/COI and Lesson 24 for y and en). When a sentence needs two of them at once, they stack in front of the verb in a set sequence. Learn the order as a table you can picture.

The order chart (pronouns before the verb):

Read it left to right: whatever pronouns your sentence uses, they line up in these columns and keep that order.

• Il me le donne. - He gives it to me. (me = column 1, le = column 2)
• Je le lui donne. - I give it to him/her. (le = column 2, lui = column 3)
• Elle nous en parle. - She talks to us about it. (nous = column 1, en = column 5)
• Tu l’y conduis. - You drive him there. (le = column 2, y = column 4, with elision l’y)

A conflict to know. Columns 1 and 3 cannot be used together. You cannot say “il me lui présente” to mean “he introduces me to him”. French avoids it: the indirect person becomes a stressed pronoun after the verb with à - il me présente à lui (see Lesson 19). Two everyday pronouns simply do not stack when both are people from those groups.

Elisions. Before a vowel, me/te/se/le/la elide: me + en -> m’en, le + y -> l’y, te + en -> t’en. Say Il m’en parle, Je l’y emmène.

Order of two pronouns: me le, le lui, l’y, les en

Group the common pairs so they become automatic:

• me le / me la / me les - column 1 + column 2: Il me le prête. (He lends it to me.)
• le lui / la lui / les lui / le leur / les leur - column 2 + column 3: Je le lui explique. (I explain it to him.)
• m’en / t’en / nous en / vous en - column 1 + column 5: Elle nous en donne. (She gives us some.)
• l’y / les y - column 2 + column 4: Nous les y retrouvons. (We meet them there.)
• y en -> il y en a - column 4 + column 5: Il y en a trois. (There are three of them.)

Placement in compound tenses

In compound tenses (passé composé, plus-que-parfait…), both pronouns go before the auxiliary (avoir or être), never between the auxiliary and the past participle.

• Il me l’a donné. - He gave it to me.
• Je le lui ai expliqué. - I explained it to him.
• Elle nous en a parlé. - She spoke to us about it.

The past participle still agrees with a preceding direct object (Lesson 20). If the COD is la/les, the participle agrees: La lettre ? Il me l’a donnée. / Ces livres ? Je les lui ai donnés. Note that en never triggers agreement: Des fleurs ? Il m’en a donné.

Placement with an infinitive

With two verbs - aller, pouvoir, devoir, vouloir + infinitive - the pair belongs to the infinitive and stands in front of it, in the usual order, not in front of the conjugated verb. Negation still wraps the conjugated verb alone. (faire + infinitive works the other way round - there both pronouns go in front of faire, Lesson 51.)

• Je vais le lui rendre ce soir. - I’m going to give it back to him this evening.
• Elle ne peut pas nous en parler avant midi. - She can’t talk to us about it before noon.

Placement in affirmative imperatives

The affirmative imperative is the exception. Here the pronouns go after the verb, joined by hyphens, and the order changes: the direct object comes first, then the indirect. Also me/te become the stressed forms moi/toi at the end.

• Donne-le-moi. - Give it to me. (not me-le)
• Explique-le-lui. - Explain it to him.
• Apporte-les-nous. - Bring them to us.
• With en, keep m’/t’: Donne-m’en. - Give me some.

The negative imperative goes back to the normal before-verb order: Ne me le donne pas. (Don’t give it to me.)

Forms & patterns

Normal order (before the verb, or before the infinitive in a two-verb group; all tenses except affirmative imperative):

Affirmative imperative order (after the verb, hyphenated):

Common pairs at a glance:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Je lui le donne -> Je le lui donne - le (column 2) comes before lui (column 3).
• Il a m’en parlé -> Il m’en a parlé - both pronouns sit before the auxiliary, not after.
• Donne-me-le -> Donne-le-moi - in the affirmative imperative the COD comes first and me becomes moi.
• Il me lui présente -> Il me présente à lui - columns 1 and 3 cannot stack; use a stressed pronoun with à.
• Il me l’a donné (feminine object, no agreement) -> Il me l’a donnée (for la lettre) - the participle agrees with the preceding l’ = la.
• Donne-moi-z-en / donne-m’en-le -> Donne-m’en - with en after the imperative, keep m’en, and don’t add a second pronoun.

Tips

• Memorize the picture: me te se / le la les / lui leur / y / en. Say it aloud until it is reflex.
• Two “people” pronouns from columns 1 and 3 never combine - reach for à + moi/lui/eux instead.
• Glue both pronouns to the front of avoir/être in compound tenses, and to the front of the infinitive in a two-verb group; check participle agreement with a preceding le/la/les.
• en never causes past-participle agreement, even when it means a quantity.
• Only the affirmative imperative flips the order and uses -moi/-toi; the negative imperative behaves like a normal sentence.
• Watch the elisions: me+en = m’en, le+y = l’y, te+en = t’en.