French Personal Pronouns - Disjunctive Pronouns

Disjunctive pronouns: moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles.

The disjunctive pronouns are the strong forms of the French pronouns, the forms used in isolation and in emphatic positions. (Compare the use of me in the English sentence "Me, I believe you, but I am not sure anyone else will".)

In French, the disjunctive pronouns are used in the following circumstances:

• as the objects of prepositions: « Je le fais pour toi », "I am doing it for you."
• in dislocated positions: « Toi, je t'ai déjà vu, moi. », "You, I have seen you before, I have."
• in cleft sentences: « C'est toi qui as tort », "It is you who is wrong." lit. "It is you who have error/wrong."
• in compound noun phrases: « Lui et moi sommes américains », "He and I are American" (though one might equally say, « Lui et moi, nous sommes américains / on est américains »).
• they are used as emphatic subjects (3rd person only): « Lui sait le faire », "He knows how to do it" (though one might equally say, « Lui, il sait le faire »).

The reflexive disjunctive form soi can be used as the object of a preposition, if it refers to the same entity as the subject. For example, « Un voyageur sait se sentir chez soi n'importe où », "A traveller knows how to feel at home anywhere." Note that this does not make the verb reflexive.