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.
| 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’.