Distinguishing between men and women with 'lui'

Question

How do you know 'lui' in the instance below is a woman?Il n'avait jamais pu lui avouer la vérité?

Accepted Answer

You don't know from this single sentence. Only context will tell whether lui refers to a man or a woman.

Answer

Hi Erica,Difficult to comment without sight of the full context.What is the context of the fuller text within which your query sentence appears?Jim

Answer

In this sentence, you do know - because of the translation.

As Chris has correctly noted, without the translation more context would be required. This would be either known, or enquired about in a conversation. In a more complete text, it would be unusual for the context not to be clear.