Goals What you'll be able to do
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to…
- 📷 Describe and comment on a travel photo (what you see, what you feel).
- 📮 Write a postcard to a friend or family member.
- 🎯 Use direct object pronouns correctly (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les) — the equivalent of English me, you, him/her/it, us, them.
- ↗️ Use indirect object pronouns (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur) — for things where English uses to me, to him etc.
- 🔄 Master pronoun placement and double pronouns (je le lui donne = "I give it to him").
- 🔊 Recognise silent "e"s in casual spoken French.
Discover 📷 First contact
📚 Petite Planète — a photo book by Martin Parr
The British photographer Martin Parr (born 1952) is famous for his ironic, candy-coloured photos of mass tourism. His book Petite Planète gathers images of tourists from all over the world. Here are 4 imaginary photos from the album:
Exercise 1 — True, false, or not stated? Listening comprehension
Listen to the interview and answer.
- Martin Parr is a French photographer. (he's British)
- What interests him is the behaviour of tourists.
- The journalist finds his book pretty bad.
- The book is a big success in European countries.
✉️ A postcard · Florence → her Mum
Florence, on holiday in Italy with friends, writes to her mother from Pisa.
Mon chère Maman,
Après Venise et Florence, nous sommes arrivés à Pise et nous allons rester pendant deux jours. Nous avons pris beaucoup de photos depuis une semaine. Sur la 1ʳᵉ photo, le pays s'appelle déjà Pise et notre amie Francesca est dans sa famille à Pise, cette semaine. Je lui téléphone et nous nous voyons ce soir. Elle vient avec son frère, Claudio.
Je suis vraiment très contente de ce voyage. Je vous rappelais cette semaine, tu sais ? Tout va bien à la maison. Je vous appellerai quand nous arriverons à Rome.
Je t'embrasse, Florence
P.-S. C'est l'anniversaire de mariage de Léa et Thomas le 25. Téléphone-leur ! Ça leur fera plaisir.
Exercise 2 — Spot the pronouns 🔍 Who/what does each pronoun refer to?
In the postcard, identify what each highlighted pronoun stands for. You'll see they refer to different people or things in the text!
- « Je lui téléphone » → lui stands for…
- « Je vous appellerai » → vous stands for…
- « Téléphone-leur! » → leur stands for…
- « Ça leur fera plaisir » → leur stands for…
Vocabulary Words to remember
📷 Photos & album
🌍 Tourists & places
💌 The postcard & actions
Grammar — Object pronouns COD / COI / double pronouns
Object pronouns let you avoid repetition. Instead of repeating a noun, you replace it with a short pronoun. English does the same thing ("I saw Sophie" → "I saw her"), but with two big French-only twists: (1) French pronouns sit before the verb, not after, and (2) French distinguishes direct objects (no preposition) from indirect objects (introduced by à) with separate pronoun sets. Once you internalise that, the rest is logic.
1️⃣ Direct object pronouns (COD)
The COD (Complément d'Objet Direct) answers "who?" or "what?" after the verb. No preposition. Same idea as English him, her, it, them after a verb like see, take, know.
| Pronoun | Replaces | Example |
|---|---|---|
| me / m' | "me" | Il me connaît bien. ("He knows me well.") |
| te / t' | "you" (singular, informal) | Elle ne t'a pas vu. ("She didn't see you.") |
| le / l' | masc. sing. (him / it) | Tu vois ce monument ? — Oui, je le vois. |
| la / l' | fem. sing. (her / it) | La photo, je l'ai prise hier. |
| nous | "us" | Il nous appelle ce soir. |
| vous | "you" (plural or polite) | Je vous appellerai à Rome. |
| les | masc./fem. plural (them) | Les cartes postales, je les ai envoyées. |
2️⃣ Indirect object pronouns (COI)
The COI answers "to whom?". There's always an « à » before the person noun in French: parler à Marie, téléphoner à ses amis, écrire à sa mère. English often hides this — we say "I'll call her" and "I'll write her", with no preposition. But in French téléphoner and écrire grammatically require the à, so they take indirect pronouns: "je lui téléphone, je lui écris".
| Pronoun | Replaces | Example |
|---|---|---|
| me / m' | to me | Tu peux me parler. ("You can talk to me.") |
| te / t' | to you (informal) | Je te dis la vérité. |
| lui | to him / to her ⚠️ same form for both genders! | Francesca ? Je lui téléphone ce soir. (to her) Pierre ? Je ne lui ai pas écrit. (to him) |
| nous | to us | Tu peux nous expliquer ? |
| vous | to you (pl./polite) | Elle vous a répondu ? |
| leur | to them ⚠️ no -s, not the possessive leur(s)! | Léa et Thomas ? Téléphone-leur, ça leur fera plaisir. |
3️⃣ Pronoun placement
📍 Default rule
The pronoun goes BEFORE the verb (or before the auxiliary in the passé composé). This is the opposite of English ("I see her" / "Je la vois").
| 📌 Present | Je la vois. / Je ne la vois pas. |
| 📌 Passé composé | Je l'ai vue. / Je ne l'ai pas vue. |
| 📌 Near future | Je vais la voir. / Je ne vais pas la voir. |
⚠️ Special case: affirmative imperative
In the affirmative imperative only, the pronoun comes AFTER the verb, linked by a hyphen — and me becomes moi, te becomes toi. (This actually matches English: "Wait for me!" / "Tell me!")
| Attends-moi ! / Décris-les ! ("Wait for me!" / "Describe them!") |
| Téléphone-leur ! / Écris-nous ! |
| But in the negative imperative, the regular placement is back: Ne m'attends pas ! / Ne leur téléphone pas ! |
4️⃣ Double pronouns
When you have BOTH a direct AND an indirect object in the same sentence, the order is fixed. English does this freely with word order ("I give it to him" or "I give him it"), but French commits to one arrangement only:
me / te / se / nous / vous + le / la / les + lui / leur + verb
▸ Cette leçon est difficile, je la lui explique. ("I explain it to her.")
▸ Tu en veux un bon livre ? Je peux te l'envoyer. ("I can send it to you.")
▸ Ces photos ne sont pas belles, ne les leur montre pas ! ("Don't show them to them!")
💡 For English speakers
English allows two word orders: "I gave the book to him" or "I gave him the book". French doesn't shuffle nouns like that — but when you switch to pronouns, French is more compact than English: "Je le lui ai donné" = literally "I it-to-him have given" → "I gave it to him." Three pieces of information packed in front of the verb. This feels alien at first, but with practice it becomes a satisfying little puzzle. Tip: parse from the verb backwards. Verb = donné; what was given? le; to whom? lui. Read right-to-left and you have your English sentence back.
Practice Try it out
Exercise 3 — An answer for everything 💬 Replace nouns with pronouns
Answer the questions by replacing the underlined nouns with the correct pronoun.
🎯 Example: Tu m'envoies une carte à tes parents ? → Oui, je leur envoie une carte.
- Vous avez fait la nouvelle photo du club de la sœur ?
→ Oui, je . - Tu as donné les clés de l'agence à Sophie ?
→ Non, je ne . - Tu vois tes parents pour les vacances ?
→ Oui, je . - Elle va montrer ses photos de vacances à ses collègues ?
→ Oui, elle va . - Tu pourrais voir ton hôtel sur le site ?
→ Oui, je .
Exercise 4 — Departure-day stress 😰 Fill in the pronouns
Fill in with the right pronoun (les / la / le / lui / leur / nous / me).
— Bon alors, où est-ce que j'ai mis les billets d'avion ?
— Mais non, je ne
ai pas !
— Ah oui, c'est vrai. Ils sont dans mon sac. Et les clés de la maison, tu
as données à Pierre ?
— Non, c'est non… Va, donne-
!
— Tu as prévenu les gens de l'hôtel pour donner notre heure d'arrivée ?
— Oui ! Pas de problème ! Je
ai téléphoné. Ils
attendent à l'aéroport.
— Et le numéro de téléphone de l'hôtel ? Maman
connaît ?
— Oh, écoute ! Tu
énerves ! Appelle-
pour
donner !
— Calme-toi ! Ce sont tes vacances, non ?
— Oui, je sais ! Mais je suis toujours énervé quand on part comme ça…
Exercise 5 — Your postcard 📮 Write your own
You're on a trip. Write a postcard (100-150 words) to someone close. Use at least 5 object pronouns (direct or indirect) and 1 double pronoun. The AI will mark your work 🤖.
Communicate · What do you think? Real-world task
With your partner, answer the questions below.
- Which tourist behaviours do you find funny 😄 or shocking 😠?
- When you travel, do you take lots of photos? Why (or why not)?
- What's the cliché of the American / British / French tourist abroad? Is it accurate?
- Do you prefer to send paper postcards or WhatsApp photos? Why?
- Is there a monument you find too touristy to be beautiful any more?
- Is there a photographer you admire? Who?
Pronunciation · The mute « e » Silent letters in casual French
In casual spoken French, the « e » without an accent is often dropped. This is what gives spoken French its fast, breathless rhythm — it can sound to an English ear like the speaker is swallowing whole syllables. It happens especially often with pronouns!
Compare written vs. casual spoken French:
| Written form | Casual spoken form |
|---|---|
| Si tu ne me le donnes pas… | « si tu n'me l'donnes pas… » |
| Je ne sais pas | « j'sais pas » ("dunno") |
| Je ne peux pas venir | « j'peux pas v'nir » |
| Tu ne me prends pas en photo ? | « tu m'prends pas en photo ? » |
Is the « e » pronounced? Listen and decide
Listen to each sentence and write YES if the underlined "e" is pronounced, NO if it's silent.
- « Je ne les ai pas encore envoyés. »
- « Si tu ne me le donnes pas, je vais te prendre. »
- « Si tu ne me donnes pas ton numéro, je ne pourrai pas te joindre. »
- « Le matin, c'est trop tôt pour prendre des photos. » ("le" at the start of the sentence is pronounced)
🎯 Your turn: Replay the audio and repeat each sentence dropping the mute e's. That's how native speakers actually talk!
Travel photos 📸 Cultural snapshot
📷 Martin Parr — the master of ironic tourism
Martin Parr (born 1952 in Epsom, UK) is one of the world's most famous documentary photographers, and a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency since 1994. His hyper-saturated photos capture the excesses of mass tourism: selfies in front of the Mona Lisa, hot dogs at Coney Island, five-star beach holidays, deck chairs at Brighton… It's a tender but ironic look at modern consumer culture — affectionate, never cruel.
📸 From postcard to selfie
In the 1990s-2000s, you'd send postcards to the whole family — the classic "it's sunny, having a great time, love". These days it's WhatsApp, Instagram, BeReal. The paper postcard is holding on, though: France still sells around 50 million per year (declining, but not dead). Many people see it as a slow, precious gesture in a digital age — and a souvenir that can sit on a fridge for years.
📊 Travel photos in numbers (2026)
per trip on average
per year in France
in front of the Mona Lisa
are never looked at twice
🇬🇧 🇺🇸 vs 🇫🇷
English-speaking travellers tend to share trip photos on Instagram, WhatsApp family groups, and increasingly BeReal — which, fun fact, is a French app. BeReal's anti-Instagram premise — one unedited photo a day, when the app pings you — has become a cultural marker for younger French users who are tired of curated feeds. In France, travel photos tend to be more intimate: shared mainly with close family on WhatsApp, less broadcast on public social media than in the US or UK. The viral spot-chasing culture ("Instagrammable location") is real but more muted than in the Anglosphere — though Paris locations like the rue Crémieux have had to put up "no photo shoots" signs after Insta-influencers caused noise complaints from residents. Also worth knowing: cafés in France generally don't mind you photographing your food, but photographing people without consent — especially children — is taken much more seriously than in most English-speaking countries; the right to one's image is enshrined in French law.