In this lesson, you'll see three cases in which stress pronouns (moi, toi, lui, elle, soi, nous, vous, eux, elles) are used in French.
Jean est plus grand que moi.
Jean is taller than me.
Il mange moins de viande que vous.
He eats less meat than you do.
Ma sœur chante aussi bien qu'elles.
My sister sings as well as they do.
Paulette n'aime que lui!
Paulette loves only him!
Je ne veux que toi !
I want only you!
Il ne manque qu'eux.
They're the last ones.
[Lit. It's only missing them.]
Case of soi
Soi is used to represent a universal "one[self]", in general statements or descriptions. It's the stress pronoun matching the general meaning of "on" (we/you/people) or the impersonal "il".
On ne doit pas penser qu'à soi.
One mustn't think only of oneself.
Il faut toujours aider plus petit que soi.
One must always help those smaller than oneself.
See also previous lessons Moi, toi, lui, elle = me, you, him, her (stress pronouns) and Nous, vous, eux, elles = us, you, them (stress pronouns)
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Je suis devant eux.
I'm in front of them.
On n'aime que soi.
One only loves oneself.
Il mange moins de viande que vous.
He eats less meat than you do.
Paulette n'aime que lui!
Paulette loves only him!
Il faut toujours aider plus petit que soi.
One must always help those smaller than oneself.
On ne doit pas penser qu'à soi.
One mustn't think only of oneself.
Jean est plus grand que moi.
Jean is taller than me.
Il ne manque qu'eux.
They're the last ones.
[Lit. It's only missing them.]
Je pense à mes amis. Je pense à eux.
I'm thinking about my friends. I'm thinking about them.
Je ne veux que toi !
I want only you!
Laura est derrière nous.
Laura is behind us.
Il pense à elle
He's thinking of her
Ma sœur chante aussi bien qu'elles.
My sister sings as well as they do.
Q&A
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
15/08/18
Hi Daly,
'Soi' is the emphatic/stress pronoun that relates to 'on', or an indeterminate entity as in :
Chacun pour soi = Every man for himself
En travailleur indépendant/freelance, c'est agréable par qu'on travaille pour soi = When you work freelance it's great because you work for yourself
You would only add même to emphasise :
On n'est jamais si bien servi que par soi-même = If you want something done right, do it yourself
Hope this helps!
Michael
Kwiziq community member
19 February 2018
1 reply
How to know when to use "soi" or "soi-même" to say "oneself"?
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
19/02/18
Bonjour Michael !
I agree that it's indeed quite a tricky point!
Indeed, after looking into it thoroughly, I can't really come up with a better explanation than "colloquial usage", which I admit is not really satisfying :)
I would say however that we will tend to use soi rather than soi-même after prepositions (devant, avec...) and with comparisons or after que in general.
Soi-même will more often be used to emphasise that you do the action yourself:
I hope that's helpful!
Merci et bonne journée !
Blix
Kwiziq community member
16 February 2018
3 replies
Soi or soi-même?
Blix
Kwiziq community member
16/02/18
An A2 question asks the french translation of "One must always look in front of oneself." I responded with "Il faut toujours regarder devant soi-même," and it was marked as incorrect. The correct answer was "Il faut toujours regarder devant soi." I am confused why one would not use "soi-même" for "oneself" in this instance.
Michael
Kwiziq community member
17/02/18
Chris
Kwiziq community member
19/02/18
Aurélie and Laura have answered this very same question asked by a later poster.
-- Chris.
Chris
Kwiziq community member
13/02/18
Hi Cathy,
"soi-même" is "oneself" or "yourself" in English. For example:
"Pour l’apprendre aux autres il faut le savoir soi-même." -- To teach it to others one must knkow it oneself (or: you must know it yourself).
Or, in another example:
Il vaut mieux le faire soi-même. --It’s better to do it yourself.Does that help? -- Chris (not a native speaker).
Cathy
Kwiziq community member
13/02/18
Chris
Kwiziq community member
19/02/18
Check the later questions. Aurélie and Laura answered this question there.
-- Chris.
Chris
Kwiziq community member
21/01/18
The French verb "parler" can have two pieces of information attached to it: with whom you speak and what you speak of. For example:
Je parle à Marie de son travail. -- I speak with Marie about her work.
You can now proceed to substitute pronouns for each of the two parts and it would go like this:
Je lui en parle. -- I speak with her about it.
The topic you speek about is always "de + (topic)". If you speak about her then it is "d'elle". The person you speak with is always an indirect object in French: "parler À quelqu'un". Therefore it goes like this:
Je te parle -- I speak with you.
Je lui parle -- I speak with him (or her; only context would tell).
Je vous parle -- I speak with them (or you; in a formal setting)
"Je l'en parle" is definitely incorrect.
Greetings, -- Chris (not a native speaker).
Chris
Kwiziq community member
22/01/18
Je vous parle -- I speak with you (either a group or a formal "tu")
Joan
Kwiziq community member
13/02/18
Hi Chris, if I want to say: "I speak with him about them", is it : "Je lui parle d'eux" ?
Thanks
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
4/09/18
Hi Joan,
Indeed,
"Je lui parle d'eux" is correct for "I speak with him about them"...
Ron
Kwiziq community member
22/10/17
Here are a few links that may help differentiate the issue for you. I am providing he links in lieu of copying and pasting the info:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/soi-m%C3%AAme-lui-m%C3%AAme-elle-m%C3%AAme.331578/
http://www.languefrancaise.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6127
http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/francais-definition/soi-m%C3%AAme
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/soi-m%C3%AAme
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/soi
J'espère que ma réponse vous aiderait.
Bonne chance et bonne continuation dans vos études en français, la langue de Molière et qui a été utilisé par le monde français depuis l’époque d’Hugues Capet
Ron (a non-native speaker)
Chris
Kwiziq community member
23/10/17
On doit le fair. -- One has to do it.
or
On doit le fair soi-même. -- One has to do it oneself.
In this case you always add "-même". "On doit le faire soi" is simply wrong because "soi" by itself is a reflexive pronoun (like "me", "se", etc.). To make it a stress pronoun, add the "-même". Here is an example, where "soi" is used in a pure reflexive sense and not as a stress pronoun (hence sans "-même"): On doit prendre soin de soi. (One has to take care of oneself).
I hope that helps, -- Chris (not a native speaker).
Ron
Kwiziq community member
3/09/17
Of all the questions about advanced stress pronouns, this is possibly the most interesting because of the verb «manquer à» Let's look at this example.
Jean lui manque. --> She/he misses Jean If you recall, the noun and pronoun orders are reversed with the verb, hence the pronoun is actually the person who feels he/she is missing someone even though literally it would be stated Jean is missing to him. i.e. he misses Jean.
Now recalling that «to him» in French becomes à lui. Therefore the phrase becomes Jean lui manque.
And from the lesson:
Notice that stress pronouns are used in the following 3 cases:
- in sentences, after prepositions (de, à, avec, derrière, pour etc),
- in comparisons, after que (plus/moins/aussi ....que),
- with the restriction ne... que (only), after que.
I hope that this is useful and that I have answered and help clarify this for you.
Bonne chance.
Susan
Kwiziq community member
3/09/17
Ron
Kwiziq community member
3/09/17
So here are the pronouns, notice I did not say stress pronouns, the one uses with manquer à,
Note that to introduce the person who it lacks to, you either use manquer à + name, or to use pronouns (i.e. I, you, he, we, they... miss), you will use the me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur before manquer.
I hope this helps clarify this. Obviously, elle is used as a stress pronoun, not as a regular pronoun, for that it become «lui».
Bonne chance.
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
4/09/17
In "She misses Jacques," the pronoun that replaces "she" is not a stress pronoun, it's an indirect object pronoun, and the feminine indirect object pronoun is the same as the masculine: lui.
Susan
Kwiziq community member
4/09/17
Ron
Kwiziq community member
20/08/17
Alors, je ne comprends pas de tout en ce qui concerne votre question. Avez-vous eu une question?
Je pense à lui est une phrase exacte.
Bonne chance.
David
Kwiziq community member
20/08/17
David
Arash
Kwiziq community member
27 April 2017
1 reply
Should we say "Je lui pense" instead of "Je pense à elle"?
Ron
Kwiziq community member
4/05/17
In short, the answer is no. The reason is: je lui pense translates to "I think him", not I think of him. There is also a difference in whether the pronoun is a direct or indirect pronoun. In this case, "je pense à elle" penser à is a transitive verb which always requires a direct object.
***have in one's thoughts) penser à
⇒ What are you thinking? À quoi penses-tu?
to think positive thoughts penser à des choses positives
I hope this helps.
Ron
Daly
Kwiziq community member
12 August 2018
1 reply
soi on its own sounds clumsy, which is unusual in french
Chris
Kwiziq community member
12 August 2018
12/08/18