French Tonic or Stress Pronouns

Stressed pronouns, also called disjunctive or emphatic pronouns, are used to provide emphasis of a personal pronoun that refers to a person or group of people. The French stressed pronouns are: moi (me), toi (you), lui (him), elle (her), nous (us), vous (you), eux (them) and elles (them).

Stress pronouns, also known as tonic or disjunctive pronouns, put stress in a sentence. In this module, we will learn about some of the most common ways to use stress pronouns in French. Using these in everyday conversation are common in the French language. In English, however, we use voice inflection and intonation emphasis to stress what we’re expressing in a sentence. Below is the list of French tonic pronouns.

moi      me

toi        you     

lui        him

elle      her

soi       one

nous     us

vous     you

eux       them

elles     them (f)

In this module we will talk about 3 common ways that stress pronouns are used. The other resources in this module may elaborate on additional ways that include more complex French grammar topics.

Usage #1: To emphasize the subject or subject pronoun

Following C’est or Ce sont (meaning It is)

                        C’est moi qui aime le petit-déjeuner pour le dîner !

It’s me who likes breakfast for dinner !

                        Ce sont elles qui adorent le vin !

It’s them who love the wine !

            Repeating the subject pronoun

                        Toi, tu cries trop fort !

You, you are shouting too loudly !

                        Moi et lui (Nous), nous sortons ce soir.

Me and him (Us), we are going out tonight.

Usage #2: After a preposition (see the Quizlet module to learn French prepositions*)

            Monsieur, il y a un cadeau devant vous.

Mister, there is a gift in front of you.

            Je ne veux pas aller avec eux à la plage.

I don’t want to go with them to the beach.

*Note that stress pronouns can only refer to people. Not all prepositions provided will make sense in this context.

Usage #3: To say, myself/yourself/himself, etc…

            Add -même to the stress pronoun

                        Je peux faire le travail moi-même.

                        I can do the work myself.

                        Nous posons les questions nous-mêmes.

                        We are posing the questions ourselves.

Disjunctive pronouns (also known as tonic or stressed pronouns) refer to people whose names have already been mentioned or whose identity is obvious from context. They are used in a variety of situations in French, most often in short answers without verbs, for emphasis, or for contrast with subject pronouns. French stressed pronouns correspond in some ways to their English counterparts but are very different in other ways. Note that the English translations sometimes require different sentence structures altogether. Stressed pronouns are used in the following ways in French:

• To emphasize nouns or pronouns
• After c’est and ce sont
• When a sentence has more than one subject or object
• To ask and answer questions
• After prepositions