Stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui, eux)
A third set of pronouns, and the one that stands alone. Weeks 13 and 14 gave the pronouns that attach to a verb; these are the ones that do not.
| subject | stressed | |
|---|---|---|
| je | moi | Moi, je remplis le dossier. |
| tu | toi | C'est pour toi. |
| il | lui | Je vais chez lui. |
| elle | elle | Je pars avec elle. |
| nous | nous | Chez nous, c'est différent. |
| vous | vous | Après vous. |
| ils | eux | Je travaille pour eux. |
| elles | elles | Ce sont elles. |
Four places they are required:
- After a preposition — avec moi, chez lui, pour eux, sans toi, à côté d'elle. A subject pronoun is impossible here: avec je does not exist.
- For emphasis, doubling the subject — *Moi, je ne suis pas d'accord.* This is extremely common in speech and is how French stresses a subject, since it cannot do it with the voice the way English can.
- After c'est — C'est moi. Ce sont eux.
- In an answer with no verb — Qui a le formulaire ? — Lui.
And they follow que in a comparison: Il est plus rapide que moi.
*The trap is lui. It is a stressed pronoun and* an indirect object pronoun, and the two do different jobs in different positions:
| Je lui parle. | I speak to him/her — indirect object, before the verb |
|---|---|
| Je parle avec lui. | I speak with him — stressed, after a preposition |
Position decides which one you are looking at. Before the verb it is indirect; anywhere else it is stressed. Note also that indirect lui covers both genders, while stressed lui is masculine only — the feminine is elle.
What this unlocks
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.