A French stress pronoun replaces or emphasizes a human object. You can find it alone, after c’est (it is), or after a preposition. The beauty of this pronoun is that it’s nonintegrated, which means you don’t need to worry about where to put it in the sentence: It goes right after the preposition or c’est!
There are eight French stress pronouns:
moi (me)
toi (you [singular informal])
lui (him)
elle (her)
nous (us)
vous (you [singular formal or plural formal and informal])
eux (them [masculine])
elles (them [feminine])
Stress pronouns can replace a French noun
After the expression c’est (this is), or also used alone, the stress pronoun emphasizes or points out someone, like in these examples:
— Est-ce que c’est Paul, là-bas? (Is that Paul over there?) — Oui c’est lui. (Yes, that’s him.)
— C’est toi qui as fait ça? (Did you do this?) — Oui, c’est moi. (Yes, it’s me./Yes, I did.)
— Qui veut du chocolat? (Who wants some chocolate?) — Nous. (Us./We do.)
Using c’est + the stress pronoun is a good equivalent to using the English I did or we do, which don’t really translate into French otherwise.
After prepositions like avec (with), pour (for), and chez (at the house of), the stress pronoun replaces a noun to avoid a repetition. Here’s an example:
— Tu viens avec nous, ou tu pars avec Pierre et Julie? (Are you coming with us, or are you leaving with Pierre and Julie?) — Je pars avec eux. (I am leaving with them.)
You also use a stress pronoun after certain verbs + de, like avoir besoin de (to need) and être amoureux de (to be in love with), when the object of these verbs is a person, not a thing. Check out these examples:
Il a peur de son prof de math. (He is afraid of his math teacher.) → Il a peur de lui. (He is afraid of him.)
L’enfant a besoin de ses parents. (The child needs his parents.) → L’enfant a besoin d’eux. (The child needs them.)
When verbs like penser à (to think about) and s’intéresser à (to be interested in) are followed by a human object, you have to use a stress pronoun in place of an indirect object pronoun. Here are some common verbs of this kind.
penser à (to think about someone)
tenir à (to hold someone dear)
faire attention à (to pay attention to someone)
être à (to belong to someone)
s’intéresser à (to be interested in someone)
Here they are in action:
Il pense à ses amis. (He thinks about his friends.) → Il pense à eux. (He thinks about them.)
Ce livre est à Anne. (This book belongs to Anne.) → Ce livre est à elle. (This book belongs to her.)
Stress pronoun reinforce a noun
The stress pronoun can also reinforce the subject of a verb, for effect. As long as it refers to a person, that subject can be a noun, like son mari (her husband), or the subject pronoun (je, tu, and so on). In both cases, the stress pronoun is placed right after the subject, often separated by a comma.
Jeanne part en vacances; son mari, lui, travaille. (Jane is going on vacation; but her husband, he’s working.)
Moi, je me suis bien amusé samedi. Et vous? (Personally, I had a lot of fun Saturday. And you?)
The stress pronoun can reinforce a subject pronoun, but it can never replace it. In other words, the stress pronoun can never be the subject of the verb. Don’t say Moi mange beaucoup de chocolat. (Me, I eat a lot of chocolate.) You still have to use the subject pronoun (underlined in the example): Moi, je mange beaucoup de chocolat. (Me, I eat a lot of chocolate.)
