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French Stress Pronouns
Moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux and elles are the French stress pronouns — the forms a personal pronoun takes when it stands detached from the verb altogether. They step in after prepositions, on their own, after c’est, and in comparisons:
Avec moi. Chez eux. C’est toi ? Plus tard que lui.
Grammars also call them disjunctive or tonic pronouns. English uses "me, him, them" in all these spots; French has a dedicated set.
In short
- The set: moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles = me, you, him, her, us, you, them.
- Use them wherever the pronoun stands without its own verb: after a preposition (pour elle), alone (Moi !), after c’est (c’est lui), after que in comparisons (que toi).
- Never a subject pronoun there: avec moi, never avec je.
stress pronounsubject pronounpreposition· hover a highlighted word for its label
The set: subject form → stress form
Subject pronouns only work welded to a conjugated verb. Cut the pronoun loose and it changes shape — though half the set happens to look the same:
| Subject | Stress form | English |
|---|---|---|
| je | moi | me |
| tu | toi | you |
| il | lui | him |
| elle | elle | her |
| nous | nous | us |
| vous | vous | you |
| ils | eux | them (masculine or mixed) |
| elles | elles | them (all feminine) |
After prepositions
Any pronoun following a preposition — avec, pour, chez, sans, devant, à côté de… — takes the stress form: pour elle, sans toi. One border case: with many verbs, à + person is replaced by lui or leur before the verb (je lui parle), yet penser à keeps the stress pronoun after à: je pense à elle. That split belongs to direct vs indirect object pronouns.
Are you coming back with me or staying here?
— After the preposition avec the only possible form is moi.
Tonight we’re having dinner at their place.
— eux is the stress form of ils — a masculine or mixed group.
Doubling for emphasis
English stresses a pronoun with the voice ("I think…"); French adds the stress pronoun next to the subject and keeps both. The doubled pronoun can also trail the sentence:
Je n’ai rien entendu, moi.
Personally, I’d rather travel by train.
— Moi doubles the subject je to add emphasis.
Him? He never answers messages.
— Same doubling in the third person: Lui spotlights il.
Alone, after c’est, in comparisons
With no verb at all — one-word answers, exclamations — only a stress pronoun can stand. To agree with someone, mind the polarity: moi aussi answers an affirmative sentence, moi non plus answers a negative one.
J’adore ce quartier. — Moi aussi.
Je n’aime pas le lundi. — Moi non plus.
After c’est, the same forms: c’est moi, c’est toi, c’est lui. With eux and elles, careful written French says ce sont eux / ce sont elles, but everyday speech overwhelmingly says c’est eux — both are worth recognizing.
After que in a comparison, again the stress form: plus patient que moi.
Who left the door open? — Not me!
— Alone, with no verb in sight, only moi can stand.
She’s the one who had the idea for the present.
— After c’est, use elle — never a subject pronoun.
She runs faster than you.
— After que in a comparison the pronoun stands verbless: toi.
Three more places you’ll meet them
- Add -même for "-self": moi-même (myself), elle-même (herself), eux-mêmes (themselves).
- Compound subjects and follow-up questions use stress forms: Toi et moi, nous partons demain. Et moi ? (What about me?)
- The moi / toi hanging after an affirmative command (Suis-moi !) is placement, not emphasis — it lives on the imperative page.
They repainted the whole apartment themselves.
— In eux-mêmes, -mêmes glues onto eux the way "-selves" glues onto "them".
Common mistakes
✗Tu peux venir au marché avec je ?
✓Tu peux venir au marché avec moi ?
A subject pronoun cannot follow a preposition; after avec, pour, chez or sans, the pronoun takes its stress form.
✗— Je n’ai jamais visité Lyon. — Moi aussi.
✓— Je n’ai jamais visité Lyon. — Moi non plus.
Moi aussi agrees with an affirmative sentence; to agree with a negative one, French says moi non plus.
✗Sa sœur est plus âgée que il.
✓Sa sœur est plus âgée que lui.
After que in a comparison the pronoun has no verb of its own, so it must be the stress form lui.
Check yourself
1 / 3Léa et Marc arrivent ! Tu descends avec ___ ?
2 / 3C’est ___ qui as pris cette photo ?
3 / 3___, je trouve ce prix trop élevé.
Frequently asked questions
What are stress pronouns in French?
They are moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles — the forms a personal pronoun takes when it is detached from a verb: after prepositions (pour moi), standing alone (Moi !), after c’est (c’est lui), and in comparisons (plus vite que toi). Grammars also call them disjunctive or tonic pronouns.
When do you use eux instead of ils?
Ils works only as the subject of a conjugated verb: ils arrivent. Everywhere else a masculine or mixed "they / them" becomes eux — chez eux, c’est eux, avec eux. An all-feminine group uses elles in both jobs.
How do you say "me too" and "me neither" in French?
Moi aussi agrees with an affirmative statement (J’aime ce café. — Moi aussi) and moi non plus with a negative one (Je n’ai pas faim. — Moi non plus). Swap in other stress pronouns for other people: lui aussi, eux non plus.
Memory tip
No verb of its own → stress form. Glued to a conjugated verb, a pronoun is je, tu, il…; the moment it stands verbless — behind a preposition, after c’est, alone, after que — it switches to moi, toi, lui, eux.
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