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I started learning French a couple of months back. My German proficiency is at B2 level (CEFRL).

I wanted to know if French also has the different Accusative & Dative forms for

  1. Personal Pronouns,
  2. Reflexive Pronouns,
  3. Possessive articles,
  4. Def./Indef. articles,
  5. Demonstrative articles ETC...

just like German does?

As a related question, does Spanish have the same rules too as German?

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2 Answers 2

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The personal pronouns for the 3rd person have accusative (je le vois "I see him") and dative (je lui donne le livre "I give him the book") forms. Similarly in the plural (les/leur).

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French has case marking for some pre-verbal and immediate post-verbal personal pronouns (eg je/me and il/le/lui). Personal pronouns in any other context do not distinguish case (eg moi).

It also distinguishes the relative pronoun qui (subject) from que (object).

As far as I can think, it does not show grammatical case anywhere else.

I don't even know what you mean by "possessive articles" and "demonstrative articles, but no articles or demonstratives distinguish case.

Like German, and most other European languages with articles, it has some contracted forms of preposition+article (eg du, aux), but these do not index case.

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  • French also has case marking in post-verbal clitic forms, e.g., donne-le-leur (where the emphatic forms used elsewhere would be lui and eux, respectively).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 17, 2022 at 20:07
  • Thank you @JanusBahsJacquet: edited to add.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Apr 18, 2022 at 8:50

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