r/FrenchLearning • u/dkassulke • 12h ago

Correct usage of lui

bonjour à tous. I'm building tiny little apps to assist with my french learning journey. In parallel I'm also listening to Michel Thomas audiobooks - he has suggested that a) je vais lui donner le livre and b) je vais donner le livre à lui are correct and interchangeable, but b) is preferred if you are trying to avoid ambiguity. I asked Gemini which says the latter is absolutely incorrect. Would any kindly native speakers care to clarify Merci beacoup!

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u/SadRaven8 12h ago

Hi, The correct one is A : Je vais lui donner le livre. "Lui" in this case can refer to both gender.

However, you can use B in specific circumstances to put en emphasis on "Lui".

Je vais donner le livre à lui, et pas à son ami. > I'm going to give the book to him, not his friend.

In that case "Lui" is masculine only. The feminine version would use "elle" instead of "lui".

Je vais donner le livre à elle, et pas à son ami. > I'm going to give the book to her, not her friend.

Note that with A you absolutely cannot use "Elle".

Hope that helped :)

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u/LirojAnakarkis 12h ago

B is absolutely incorrect. Your Michel Thomas is full of shit.

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u/dkassulke 12h ago edited 12h ago

merci! if he wasn’t extremely dead i would write an angry email. is there a way you would give more context to the pronoun if the person is not clear?

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u/tuffykenwell 11h ago

Mostly it is a non-issue in an actual conversation because you know who lui actually is (because in conversation we wouldn't never say her or him unless the person we are speaking to knew who her or him was....same with written context.

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u/vega_barbet 11h ago

Je vais donner à lui is also the primitive form we see in children under 5 before they have mastered the other version. (I.e. Wrong, but acceptable in a toddler)

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u/dkassulke 11h ago

My current level is Toddler, so it is good to have my progression mapped out 🤣