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According to grammar books, direct object pronouns are used with the verbs "aimer" and "connaître" only when they refer to people. And when they refer to things they combine with the pronoun "ça" or nothing, like in

Est-ce que tu aimes le riz? - Oui,j'aime ça.

or

Est-ce que tu connais le riz? - Oui, je connais.

But I heard some people say in similar situations

Je l'aime.

or

Je le connais.

Is the usage of direct object pronouns with the "aimer" and "connaître" which refer to things acceptable?

user32855
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    Yes, it is acceptable. No reason why not, meaning, those pronouns are not restricted to representing persons. In fact, you have to use those, because there are no separate pronouns for objects. – Frank Jul 18 '23 at 15:40

1 Answers1

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It is grammatically correct to use le, la, les ... for objects. Those pronouns are not restricted to persons, there are no separate pronouns for objects. For example:

Tu connais ce livre?

Oui, je le connais.

is entirely correct, idiomatic, etc etc., and there isn't really any other way to say that. In particular, you couldn't say Oui, j'aime ça, using ça to mean le livre.

Now, one thing to note, is that in the example above, le refers to ce livre, which is a specific livre in the conversation. If there is no specific object that the pronoun in the answer would refer to, it's a bit more questionable, in terms of usage. Here are possible answers with approximate indications about usage frequency (subjective):

Tu aimes le riz? (rice in general)

Oui, j'aime ça (ça = rice in general, quite common)

Oui, j'aime! (no pronoun, quick and simple, common in conversation)

Oui, je l'aime (possible, not common, sounds "funny")

The issue is not that rice is an object, but rather that le riz is not specific. If it is a specific eg brand of rice, the situation is a bit different, and here are possible answers, with again an approximate indication of their usage frequency (subjective again):

Tu aimes ce riz? (ce = some specific rice)

Oui, je l'aime (l' = ce riz, specific, common)

Oui, j'aime! (no pronoun, quick and simple, common in conversation)

Oui, j'aime ça (possible, maybe less common)

Frank
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  • It is not "acceptable" (not very good but good enough), it is standard procedure. – LPH Jul 18 '23 at 16:11
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    Cela me laisse coïte que l'on donne un vote négatif à une réponse comme celle-ci. – Lambie Jul 18 '23 at 18:21
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    @LPH: "acceptable" has a specific meaning in linguistics, which basically amounts to "native speakers won't think it's peculiar". – psmears Jul 19 '23 at 10:25
  • @psmears "The terms'grammatical'and 'ungrammatical'are commonly used by nonspecialists as synonyms of'acceptable'and 'unacceptable'" (CoGEL). "fully acceptable" would have been better; anyway, what was meant was not the pseudo-linguistic/contested term "acceptable". – LPH Jul 20 '23 at 09:34
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    @LPH: How do you know that? There's not a lot to go on, granted, but that was how I read it at least! – psmears Jul 20 '23 at 09:38
  • @psmears How do I know? From the interaction I had the displeasure to be involved in witjh this user. // In any case, this is not a matter of native speaker's feelings about a given usage, but a much more basic question of rock-bottom grammaticality; in such matters the speaker's feelings are soon dismissed as criterions of correctness. – LPH Jul 20 '23 at 09:47
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    @LPH Didn't see that interaction so will have to take your word for it. But tbh I'm not sure which rocks' bottoms you're using as "criterions" of correctness that have more validity than what native speakers find acceptable :) But each to their own! – psmears Jul 20 '23 at 10:04
  • @psmears rock bottom wrong: "le table, il disont, pomme la mangé, etc". – LPH Jul 20 '23 at 10:22
  • @LPH: OK. I've not come across native speakers that would be OK with that, but again I'll take your word for it. – psmears Jul 20 '23 at 10:29
  • @s.H.a.R.p.R.i.F.t Read ' "Rock-bottom" '. // Il n'y a que vous qui puissiez voir un débat "CoGEL vs CGEL", vous inventez, encore une fois. – LPH Jul 21 '23 at 14:00
  • @s.H.a.R.p.R.i.F.t Je ne pense pas avoir pris de position contre la grammaire générative ; il faudrait d'abord que je connaisse ce sujet, ce qui n'est pas le cas. Si on peut déterminer dans mes opinions une telle tendance, elle est indépendante de tout stimulus issu de la linguistique de Chomski. – LPH Jul 22 '23 at 21:31
  • @LPH Mere, basic, minimal etc. ton emploi de rock-bottom comme modificateur est vraiment pas idiomatique à mon avis. Avec wrong on se demande même si c'est une erreur moindre, plutôt que grave voire absolue, si ce n'était des exemples. Ok, le bénéfice du doute. – ninja米étoilé Jul 23 '23 at 00:20
  • @s.H.a.R.p.R.i.F.t SOED, rock-bottom: fundamental, firmly grounded. – LPH Jul 23 '23 at 01:00