Language/French/Grammar/Ambiguity-of-reference-of-lui-and-leur
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Ambiguity of reference of lui and leur
Because the indirect object pronouns lui, leur can refer both to masculine and to feminine nouns they are inherently ambiguous:
- Je lui ai indiqué le chemin
I showed him or her the way
- Pierre leur a parlé
Pierre spoke to them (either male or female or mixed)
This ambiguity can be resolved if one wishes, however, by copying the pronoun with a stressed pronoun and a preposition:
- Je lui ai indiqué le chemin à elle/Je lui ai indiqué le chemin à lui
- Pierre leur a parlé à elles/Pierre leur a parlé à eux
Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Verb forms — Conjugations & Summary table of subject pronouns.
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Future Tense
- Use of il ils and elle elles
- Position of subject pronouns
- Demonstrative pronouns
- « de » or « du », « de la », « des » after quantifiers
- L’on VS on
- Use of en with numerals and quantifiers
- Subject Verb Agreement — Agreement quantifiers numeral nouns
- Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
- Past Participle
- Manner adverbs
- Compound adjectives involving demi—, nu— and mi—
- Optional use of neutral le
- Namesake
- Auxiliaries