Me becomes moi in affirmative commands in the imperative mood (L'Impératif) in French

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE

Last updated: 2024-02-01

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In French, the object pronoun me changes to the stress pronoun moi when using L'Impératif.

How to use the pronoun moi in L'Impératif Présent in French

Look at how these sentences with me change when turned into affirmative imperatives:

Tu me montres les éléphants, s'il te plaît.
- Papa, montre-moi les éléphants !You show me the elephants, please.
- Daddy, show me the elephants!

Tu me donnes les fleurs?
-Non.
-Donne-moi les fleurs!You're giving me the flowers?
-No.
-Give me the flowers!

Tu m'aides avec mes devoirs?
-Non.
-Allez, aide-moi avec mes devoirs!Are you helping me with my homework?
-No.
-Come on, help me with my homework!

In affirmative commands, the object pronoun me (as in: Give me that!) follows this pattern:

1- The pronoun me becomes stress pronoun moi

2- It is is placed after the verb with a hyphen in between.

Remember that -ER verbs drop the final "s" in the tu form in L'Impératif Présent. See Conjugate regular verbs in the imperative mood in French (L'Impératif).

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