Are you having trouble grasping the French stressed pronouns? Between all the other French pronouns that exist, it can seem quite a challenge to master yet another category.

But don’t worry! Here in this post, we have all the information you need to understand what stressed pronouns are in French, and how to use each one so that they become second nature in your conversations. Allons-y!

What are stressed pronouns in French?

In French, stressed pronouns are called pronoms toniques. There are 9 French stressed pronons in total: moi, toi, lui, elle, soi, nous, vous, eux, and elles.

Stressed pronouns often emphasize the subject or object in a sentence. They draw attention to persons and can’t refer to things like objects or ideas. They can, for example, emphasize the speaker or the person being talked about, provide clarity when more than one subject is being discussed, or be used to make a comparison between two individuals.

There are also cases when you grammatically have to use stressed pronouns in French even if you don’t particularly want to focus the attention on someone. We are going to cover these uses in later sections.

For now, let’s take a closer look at the French stressed pronouns and their English translations.

List of the French stressed pronouns

Here are all of the French stressed pronouns, with their equivalents in English and their associated French subject pronouns.

Let’s now study some common phrase examples using each stressed pronoun:

• You like spinach? I don’t like it at all! – Tu aimes les épinards? Moi je n’aime pas ça du tout!

• Is it you who closed the door? – C’est toi qui a fermé la porte?

• He too finishes school at 4pm. – Lui aussi finit l’école à 16h00.

• I think of her every day. – Je pense à elle tous les jours.

• Taking care of oneself is important. – C’est important de prendre soin de soi.

• Be quiet! The movie is going to start. – Taisez-vous! Le film va commencer.

• Only you can do this job. – Vous seul pouvez faire ce travail.

• They are taller than them. – Ils sont plus grands qu’eux.

• They’re from Canada. And me, I’m from France. – Elles, elles viennent du Canada. Et moi, je viens de France.

If you look at the table above, you will notice there is a third-person indefinite stressed pronoun which is soi. This pronoun is only used when the subject is impersonal, and is usually translated to oneself or everyone in English, depending on the context. Thus, although its corresponding French subject pronoun is on, soi cannot become a stressed pronoun when using “on” as “we” in French.

When and how to use French stressed pronouns

French stressed pronouns can be used in various ways within a sentence: they can stand alone, work with a subject or an object pronoun, or even replace them altogether.

In the next sections, we are going to go over all the main situations where French speakers typically use les pronoms toniques, along with useful examples so you can have a good idea of how they work.

For emphasis when following c’est or ce sont

When we want to emphasize someone in a sentence with statements like it’s me [who]… or it’s him [who]…, we can use the construction c’est + stressed pronoun [+ qui] in French. We also use this construction in plural with c’est nous and c’est vous, however for it’s them in French we say ce sont eux or ce sont elles. (See our post on c’est and ce sont in French for a full explanation of this phrase.)

• It’s him who is at fault. – He’s the one who is at fault. – C’est lui le fautif.

• Is it you who called the other day? – Are you the one who called the other day? – C’est vous qui avez appelé l’autre jour ?

• They are the ones who will help you. – Ce sont eux qui vous aideront.

As we see in these examples, the English equivalent often translates using the one or the ones, which has a similar effect of adding emphasis to highlight the person.

For emphasis to stress subject pronouns

In order to stress the subject, it is possible in French to combine both subject pronouns and stressed pronouns in the same sentence. This equivalent is less common in English, and is often too grammatically awkward anyway. We provide an alternative second English version for a couple of these examples to demonstrate what we mean.

• I, for one, don’t believe it for a second. – Moi, je n’y crois pas une seule seconde.

• Pierre never comes on Saturdays. – Pierre? Him, he never comes on Saturdays. – Pierre, lui, ne vient jamais le samedi.

• They came by car, and we came by bus. – Them, they came by car, and us, we came by train. – Eux, ils sont venus en voiture, et nous, nous sommes venus en train.

As stressed object pronouns

Normally, French has a straightforward set of object pronouns that are used to refer to nouns in the dependent clauses of sentences. In some contexts, however, we really want to emphasize who we’re talking about. In this case, we can use stressed pronouns after the verb, rather than the regular object pronouns before the verb.

Check out these examples where we highlight both the regular object pronouns and the stressed pronouns to see how we’re really emphasizing one using the stressed pronouns.

• Do you prefer dating him!? You’re dating him since only one week. – Tu préfères fréquenter lui !? Tu le fréquentes depuis seulement une semaine.

• Are you looking for my parents? / No, I’m not looking for them, I was looking for you! – Cherches-tu mes parents ? / Non, je ne les cherche pas, je cherchais toi !

• Take these drinks to them. You see the table of four women? Take these to them. – Apportez-leur ces boissons. Vous voyez la table avec quatre femmes ? Apportez-les à elles.

When following a preposition

Stressed pronouns follow French prepositions, acting as the object of these prepositions. Examples of prepositions which are followed by stressed pronouns are à, de, chez, avec, sans, entre, pour, contre, etc.

• I often think of him. – Je pense souvent à lui.

• Sorry, I will go without you this time. – Désolé, j’irai sans toi cette fois.

• I received this gift from her. – J’ai reçu ce cadeau d’elle.

• He came all the way from Grenoble just for them. – Il est venu depuis Grenoble exprès pour eux.

Note that French speakers also use stressed pronouns with the preposition à to express possession. In this case, you would translate it into English with a possessive pronoun:

• This kitten is hers. – Ce chaton est à elle.

• This car is theirs. – Cette voiture est à eux.

When used alone in short sentences

Sometimes, stressed pronouns are used alone or in very short sentences and brief answers. It’s mostly the same principle in English:

• Who wants to try? You? – Qui veut essayer? Toi?

• You don’t like soccer? Me neither. – Tu n’aimes pas le foot? Moi non plus.

• They got surprised by the rain. Yes, us as well. – Ils ont été surpris par la pluie. Oui, nous ausi.

• Those kitties look so cute! Especially him. – Ces chatons ont l’air tellement mignons! Surtout lui.

When combined with -même as oneself

In French, we use the structure [stressed pronoun]-même to express the idea of oneself. For example, myself will translate to moi-même. When the stressed pronoun is plural, the ending is also in plural as -mêmes. Note that this is a different meaning of oneself than the translation when using French reflexives.

• I can do it myself. – Je peux le faire moi-même.

• Just be yourself and everything will be alright. – Soit juste toi-même et tout ira bien.

• They made this cake themselves. – Elles ont fait ce gâteau elles-mêmes.

When used with certain conjunctions

As a reminder, conjunctions are small words used to connect groups of words to make a sentence flow better.

Some coordinating conjunctions in French, such as et, ou, and ni, can’t be used to connect personal subject pronouns, so instead we use stressed pronouns. For example, we say “moi et toi” and not “je et tu,” even when they are the subject of the sentence.

• She and I study French. – Elle et moi étudions le Français.

• You or he must tell them the truth. – Toi ou lui devez leur dire la vérité.

• Neither we nor you can do anything about it. – Ni nous ni vous ne pouvons y faire quoi que ce soit.

• Do you prefer to go with him or me? – Tu préfères y aller avec lui ou moi?

Note that the French stressed pronouns don’t always translate to their English counterparts. In the first example above, the subject of the sentence is “she and I,” hence the use of the English subject pronouns she and I instead of her and me. In the last example, on the other hand, “him and me” is the object of the sentence, hence the use of the stressed pronouns him and me.

When following que

There are two main cases when que is followed by a stressed pronoun. The first one is for comparisons between people with the expressions plus que, moins que, or autant que:

• I am faster than him. – Je suis plus rapide que lui.

• You sleep less than me. – Tu dors moins que moi.

• They have as many classes as you. – Elles ont autant de cours que toi.

The second is to say only with the structure negation + que + stressed pronoun:

• I love only you. – Je n’aime que toi.

• I only have her to help me. – Je n’ai qu’elle pour m’aider.

In some imperative sentences

Similarly to English, we also use the stressed pronouns moi and toi as the direct object or indirect object when giving affirmative orders to someone in French. For the other grammatical persons, or for negative orders, the regular object pronouns are used.

• Help me! – Aide-moi ! [stressed pronoun]

• Don’t help me. Help her! Help him! Help them! – Ne m’aide pas. Aide la ! Aide le ! Aide-les ! [regular direct object pronouns]

• Give me your number. – Donne-moi ton numéro. [stressed pronoun]

• Don’t give me your number. Give him/her your number. – Ne me donne pas ton numéro. Donne-lui ton numéro. [regular indirect object pronouns]

• Calm [yourself] down and tell me everything. – Calme-toi et raconte-moi tout.

Conclusion

This concludes our post on French stressed pronouns! At this point, we’ve covered it all!

First, we explained how the big-picture goal of the French stressed pronouns is to put emphasis on certain people in the sentence. We then gave you a summary table of all the stressed pronouns in French, along with their English equivalents, with examples to see how each one functions.

Then we got into all the uses for les pronoms toniques, covering all the main circumstances where they’re used in French. We provided examples with every one to demonstrate how they work in context.

With that, you’re prepared to use the French stressed pronouns with confidence!