A direct object answers the question "what" or "whom." A direct object is NOT preceded by a preposition, such as "to," "for," "at" or "in." A direct object can be a thing, a person, an idea, a pronoun or even an entire phrase.

Here are a few examples of direct objects in English:

• They buy books for their children. (What do they buy?)
• Karen brought her a new dress. (What did she bring?)
• We met Nancy and Harry at the train station. (Whom did we meet?)
• We met them yesterday. (Whom did we meet?)
• I gave them the tickets. (What did I give them?)
• I gave it to them. (What did I give them?)
• I had an idea. (What did I have?)
• Did you know that you can fly direct to New York from here? (What did you know?)

The direct object pronoun is used as a short cut in the language to replace a person or thing that is a direct object.(See 4 and 6 in the examples above). Direct object pronouns relate to other pronouns you already know as follows:
 

In French, direct object pronouns are generally placed before the verb to which they belong. Here are a number of phrases you might remember from earlier chapters in the program that use a direct object pronoun.
 

Here, the plural form is used:
 

Below follow a few examples of how you might use direct object pronouns:
 

Examples of Direct Object Pronouns

• Très bien, vous pouvez les avoir après-demain.
• "Et pourriez-vous porter tous ces vêtements au pressing?"
• "D'accord, je les porterai au pressing."
• "Pierre, tu peux faire le lit?"
• "Bien sûr, ma cherie, je le ferai tout de suite."