French Grammar For Dummies
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A stress pronoun in French expresses me (moi), you (toi), him (lui), and so on, to refer to people. It can’t be the subject of a verb, but it comes after a preposition like pour (for) or avec (with), after c’est (it is/this is), after que (than, as) in a comparison, or alone.

The table lists the stress pronouns with the equivalent subject pronouns, followed by the English translation.

French Stress Pronouns
Subject Pronoun Corresponding Stress Pronoun Translation
je moi me
tu toi you (singular informal)
il lui him
elle elle her
nous nous us
vous vous you (singular formal, and plural informal or formal)
ils eux them (masculine or a mixed group)
elles elles them (feminine)

Here are some examples with a stress pronoun in the second half of a comparison:

Tu chantes mieux que moi. (You sing better than me.)
Jules est plus petit que toi. (Jules is shorter than you.)
Nous avons plus de patience qu’eux. (We have more patience than them.)

In front of eux, elles, and elle, que becomes qu’.

About This Article

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Véronique Mazet has a doctorate in French from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of two successful grammar books. She currently teaches French at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.

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