Position of French (in)direct object pronouns

Blaise P.B2Kwiziq community member

Position of French (in)direct object pronouns

This is really confusing: If someone says, "I bought a shirt for him" or "I bought a shirt from him." Do both of these get translated to:

Je lui ai achete une chemise

Please enlighten me. Thank you!

Asked 17 hours ago
CécileKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

This is an interesting question, Blaise. In fact, when you use the preposition à in -

acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un 

it can mean both to gift something to someone OR to buy something from someone!

So if you want to be really clear, you have to change the preposition.

As Jim says, you can use 'pour' for a gift and 'chez' for a sale.

J'ai acheté une chemise pour Jacques = I bought a shirt for Jacques

J'ai acheté une chemise chez vous = I purchased a shirt from you ( your shop)

Hope this helps!

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Bonjour de nouveau Blaise

"I bought a shirt for him"     J'ai acheté une chemise pour lui (where lui is the object of the preposition pour)

"I bought a shirt from him."    Je lui ai acheté une chemise.

First case lui is a stressed pronoun

Second case lui is an indirect object pronoun

Bonne journée

Jim

Blaise P. asked:

Position of French (in)direct object pronouns

This is really confusing: If someone says, "I bought a shirt for him" or "I bought a shirt from him." Do both of these get translated to:

Je lui ai achete une chemise

Please enlighten me. Thank you!

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