What is the difference between direct and indirect object pronouns? (Le, la, les, lui, leur)

Pronouns are words that we put before a verb to replace a noun or object. In French there are direct and indirect object pronouns and often it seems difficult to know how to use them. The direct object pronouns are le, la and les. We use a direct object pronoun to replace a noun or an object that follows directly after a verb. For example: Je mange un croissant. In this sentence the object ‘un croissant’ follows immediately after the verb ‘manger’ without any preposition. Therefore it is a direct object. Therefore if we want to not use the word ‘croissant’ but replace it with a pronoun we would write: Je le mange (I eat it). We use le because ‘un croissant’ is a masculine singular noun.However, indirect objects are not directly affected by the verb, therefore they are usually having something done to them and come after a preposition. Indirect object pronouns are lui or leur. Je donne les livres à Emily. In this sentence we have two objects – one direct and one indirect. The ‘livres’ are a direct object because, as we’ve just seen, they follow straight after the verb without a preposition. However ‘Emily’ is an indirect object because we have the preposition ‘à’ in between her and the verb, to Emily. Therefore when we want to use a pronoun to replace Emily we have to use an indirect object pronoun. Je lui donne les livres (I give her the books).If we take this same sentence and replace both of the objects then the sentence would be: Je les lui donne (I give them to her). The direct object pronoun must always come before the indirect object pronoun. So, to know if we need a direct or indirect object pronoun we must know if there is a preposition in between the object and the verb. Some verbs need the preposition à, some need the preposition de, some need no preposition at all so it’s important to try to remember which prepositions go with each verb.