Lui vs Lui-même - follow-up question

Question

I'm posting this as a new question as I previously posted it as a reply and I don't think it gets picked up and answered? (See the lesson page for original question and answer)

Many thanks Jim, that helps. I got confused because the subject of the lesson is about adding même and then these two examples don't without any explanation as to why - or perhaps I need to re-visit the basics! So it's because he is talking of/about himself. If he was talking to himself then it would be 'Il aime vraiment parler à lui-même' ? Also, what if he was saying 'He really likes to talk of/about him' ie a third person - what would be the distinction?

Also, since I posted this I've looked at the lesson on stress pronouns and I'm even more confused. This lesson gives the example of 'Je parle de lui - I speak of him'. So would 'Il parle de lui' be 'He speaks of/about him' or 'He speaks of/about himself'? Help!!

Anne Davies · Answer

R.S.

I think one source of confusion is that both lui-même and the stress pronoun in (preposition + lui) are translated into English as "himself".

Quite a good rule of thumb is that lui-même acts as an intensifier, a sort of add-on, stressing that it’s them and not someone else. So if you remove lui-même from the examples in the exercise, the sentences still make grammatical sense.