"Did you say it to him or to her?"
Translation:Řekli jste to jemu nebo jí?
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"Mu" is just a clitic form of "jemu". "Mu" (and other clitics) usually has the second position after the first part of a sentence.
How about "Řekli jste mu nebo jí to"? I think "Řekli jste mu to" is correct at least? This is so hard :)
No, that is impossible. Here we ask if it is him or her, the pronouns are stressed, you cannot use the short forms.
This is actually possible, provided the "or"/"nebo" is exclusive and you stress the pronouns.
However, since we had zero reports for this, it hadn't been added.
Also note that, even after it's been added, your version might be rejected because "ji" is a different case. You need the dative here, which is "jí" with a long "í".
Am I correct in understanding that "jemu" and "ji" are locative pronouns in this example?
Dative, if you direct the action to someone or something (giving, witing,...) it is typically dative.
I'd got the impression earlier in this subject section that "mu" and "jemu" are synonymous but this is clearly not the case. Would it be possible to explain when each is to be used please?
"mu" is unstressed, used only as a clitic (in the second position), while "jemu" is stressed, used in other positions.
- Řekni mu to. - Tell him that // Tell it to him. (neutral)
- Řekni to jemu. - Tell it to him. (not someone else)
- Jemu to řekni. - same as above
In this exercise, if we used "mu" ("Řekli jste mu to?"), we couldn't add "jí" anymore.
There are more pairs like this, for example "ho" and "jeho", or "mi" and "mně".