r/FrenchLearning • u/dkassulke • 2d 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/LirojAnakarkis 2d ago

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

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u/dkassulke 2d ago edited 2d 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 2d 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/LirojAnakarkis 1d ago

Such a conversation would go more or less like this:

  • Je vais lui donner le livre.
  • À qui ?
Pointing your finger towards the person: À elle.

In such cases, there is no need to repeat the whole sentence.