Confused about stress pronouns vs. indirect object pronous

Kate D.B2Kwiziq community member

Confused about stress pronouns vs. indirect object pronous

I'm having trouble understanding when to use stress pronouns vs. indirect object pronouns.  The sentence "quand un inconnu s'approchait de moi":  Why would this not be "quand un inconnu m'approchait"?  Would it be different if the verb wasn't reflexive?  

Asked 2 weeks ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Kate, 

you are right with your thought that the reflexive verb is relevant. 

Pronominal verbs followed by the preposition ‘ de ‘ or ‘ à ‘ require either the use of the adverbial pronoun ‘ en ‘  or ‘ y ‘ respectively where ‘allowed and appropriate’, or the use of the stress pronoun. 

There are also a number of ‘standard’ verbs followed by ‘ à ‘ that cannot have an indirect object pronoun either. 

The attached link covers this area :

 https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indirect-objects-2/ 

There are also other situations in which the stress pronoun is required

 Moi/toi/lui/elle/soi/nous/vous/eux/elles - advanced usages (French Stress Pronouns)

Kate D. asked:

Confused about stress pronouns vs. indirect object pronous

I'm having trouble understanding when to use stress pronouns vs. indirect object pronouns.  The sentence "quand un inconnu s'approchait de moi":  Why would this not be "quand un inconnu m'approchait"?  Would it be different if the verb wasn't reflexive?  

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