Stressed / disjunctive pronouns (moi / toi / lui)
Summary
Stressed (disjunctive) pronouns — moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles — appear after prepositions, for emphasis, in c'est sentences and when a pronoun stands alone.
Explanation
The stressed (or disjunctive) pronouns are moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles. They are the forms French uses whenever a pronoun is not functioning as the immediate subject or object glued to a verb — when it needs to "stand on its own feet".
Their main jobs are: after a preposition (avec moi, chez eux, pour elle, sans toi); alone in short answers (Qui veut du café ? — Moi !); for emphasis alongside the subject, often doubling it (Moi, je préfère le thé; Lui, il ne sait pas); after c'est and ce sont (C'est moi, Ce sont eux); and in compound subjects (Toi et moi, nous partons).
Several forms differ from the subject pronouns, and that is where mistakes happen. The third person is lui / elle in the singular and eux / elles in the plural — never il / ils after a preposition. So you say avec lui (not avec il) and pour eux (not pour ils); je/tu have no stressed use and become moi/toi.
They also build a few fixed patterns: with -même for "-self" (moi-même = myself, eux-mêmes = themselves), with aussi and non plus (Moi aussi ; Moi non plus), and in comparisons after que (plus grand que moi). In all of these the verb-attached forms would be ungrammatical.
A common pitfall for English and Spanish speakers is using the subject form after a preposition (avec je, pour il) by analogy with the subject pronoun. Another is dropping the doubling that French prefers for emphasis: to stress "I", you usually say Moi, je…, not just an emphasised je.
Rule of thumb: if the pronoun follows a preposition, stands alone, comes after c'est, or is being emphasised, switch to the stressed set moi / toi / lui / elle / nous / vous / eux / elles.
Examples
Tu viens avec moi ou avec eux ? — Are you coming with me or with them? (After prepositions: moi, eux (not je, ils).)
Qui a fait ça ? — Moi ! Et lui aussi. — Who did that? — Me! And him too. (Stressed forms stand alone and after aussi.)
Moi, je préfère le thé ; lui, il aime le café. — I prefer tea; he likes coffee. (Doubling for emphasis: moi/lui next to the subject pronoun.)
C'est nous qui avons gagné. — It's we who won. (After c'est, the stressed form is required.)
Elle l'a fait elle-même. — She did it herself. (-même attaches to the stressed pronoun.)
Common mistakes
C'est je qui ai raison.
C'est moi qui ai raison.
After c'est, French requires a stressed (tonic) pronoun — moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles — not a subject pronoun like je. Say c'est moi qui ai raison, not c'est je qui ai raison.
Prerequisites
Related rules
pronounsdisjunctiveemphasis