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- Topic: French >
- "Je crois en lui."
33 Comments
kmburkezoo
398
Literally, that's 'I believe in he.' Il/elle are subjects; lui/elle are objects. The counterpart pronoun depends on the context - sor of like how you can pair 'her' with 'him' OR 'his' in English. Unless there's a 'to,' in which case lui means 'to him/her,' regardless of gender - see Sitesurf's explanation on that one.
I agree, it is a tough one!
Pronoun "lui" is not always masculine. It is the feminine form as well, when the verb is constructed with preposition "à".
- je donne un stylo à Marie -> je lui donne un stylo (I give her a pen)
- je donne un stylo à Pierre -> je lui donne un stylo (I give him a pen)
now, back to verb "croire", which has 2 constructions:
- je crois Marie -> je la crois (I believe her = I believe what she says)
- je crois en Marie -> je crois en elle (I believe in her = I trust her)
- je crois en Pierre -> je crois en lui (I believe in him = I trust him).
It is a stressed or disjunctive pronoun, it can be an indirect pronoun depending on the verb's construction, and you have to use these pronouns after any preposition except "à":
- cette lettre est pour moi
- je parle de toi
- je viens avec lui
- je pars sans elle
- il est intéressé par nous
- je doute de vous
- nous sommes devant eux
- elles regardent derrière elles