What is LUI in French and How to Use LUI?
Hello everyone, welcome back to my Medium.
In today’s lesson, I’ll be talking about how to use LUI pronouns in “complément objet indirect” (COI). I’ve made a video about this discussion before, along with “complément objet direct” (COD). Click here to watch.
Back to today’s topic, the word LUI. You must have seen or heard this word several times while learning French. For example, the two examples below.
Cette voiture est à lui
‘This is his car’
Ça me fait de la peine pour lui
‘I feel sorry for him’
Both explain that LUI is equivalent to HIM/HIS (or HER) in English. Its use always replaces the third person singular. In contrast, the pronoun for the third person plural would be LEUR. We will discuss this in the next lesson.
Lui → personal pronoun. Its use is preceded by the use of a preposition, such as: à.
Je parle à Pièrre
‘I talk to Pièrre’
→ Je lui parle
‘I talk to him
Elle dit à Paul qu’elle ne viendra pas
‘She says to Paul that she isn’t coming’
→ Elle lui dis qu’elle ne viendra pas
‘She says to him that she isn’t coming’
However, the LUI is not always for masculine pronouns, but also feminine. For example:
Il demande à Marie
‘He asks Marie’
→ Il lui demande
‘He asks her’
Now, find the below examples in the conversational situation.
- “Tu as envoyé cette lettre à Lucas ?”
‘Have you sent this letter to Lucas?
“Hier, je lui ai envoyé cette lettre”
‘I sent that letter to him yersterday’ - “Elle offre des fleurs à sa soeur ?”
‘Does she give flowers to her sister?’
“Oui, elle lui offre des fleurs”
‘Yes, she gives her flowers”
In case you want to make it efficient for both examples by using COD too, your sentences would be like this:
- “Hier, je la lui ai envoyé”
‘I sent it to him yesterday
la = referes to ‘cette lettre’ → COD
lui = referes to ‘à Lucas’ → COI - “Elle les lui offre”
‘She gives them to her’
les = refers to ‘des fleurs’ → COD
lui = refers to ‘sa soeur’ → COI
Okay, so that’s all for today’s lesson. Don’t forget to watch the video here: https://youtu.be/AsNJdkULJFk
Subscribe and like if you enjoy this video. You can also comment in the comments section if you have any questions about French.
Au revoir !
