What are stress pronouns?
And when do you use lui and eux?
#Stress pronouns etc.
odd condor
timber depot
Stress pronouns are just pronouns that serve to reference a person that has already been mentioned or whose identity is clear. Lui is the stress pronoun for the masculine third person singular « il » while « eux » is for the masculine/mixed third person plural « ils ».
Stress pronouns are usually used in French for emphasis. In English, we can stress parts of a sentence by saying it with a heavier intonation to put emphasis on them: There's a difference between 'I didn't know her' and 'I didn't know her'. In French, this type of stress doesn't exist – in fact, French stress applies only to whole noun groups and only exists at the end of them – so tonic pronouns play a role here, either as repetition or in a « ce + être + [pronoun] que/qui » type sentence.
'I didn't know her'
Moi, je ne la connaissais pas.
Je ne la connaissais pas, moi.
C'est moi qui ne la connaissais pas.
'I didn't know her'
Elle, je ne la connaissais pas.
Je ne la connaissais pas, elle.
C'est elle que je ne connaissais pas.