Stress pronouns lui and elle.
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Susan M.Kwiziq community member
Stress pronouns lui and elle.
I am still confused about the stress pronouns lui and elle. Is there a reason why lui is used as a stress pronoun with manquer (à), but elle is not?
This question relates to:French lesson "Moi/toi/lui/elle/soi/nous/vous/eux/elles - advanced usages (French Stress Pronouns)"
Asked 7 years ago
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Ron T. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonjour Susan,
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 M.Kwiziq community member
Thank you. That was exactly my understanding. However, in the A2 test that I took, the question said to translate, "She misses Jacques". I wrote "Jacques elle manque." That answer was marked incorrect, and the correct answer was given as, "Jacques lui manque." When I went back to the lesson on manquer (à), I saw that "elle" was not included in the list of stress pronouns to use before manquer. I thought there must be some special exception.
![](/files/shared/_avatar-mids/user/68907/Ron%204x6%20photo_5927b14442f20.jpg)
Ron T. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonjour encore,
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.
![](/files/shared/_avatar-mids/user/8569/_DSF2754_57eced00dc139.jpg)
LauraKwiziq team member
Bonjour Susan,
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 M.Kwiziq community member
Merci beaucoup !! I see now that it was my mistake in thinking that a stress pronoun was required in this structure.
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