Learn French: Lui, c'est un ami. - Him, he is a friend.

Lui, c'est un ami.

Him, he is a friend.

Breakdown of Lui, c'est un ami.

être

to be

it / this (with être)

l'ami

the friend (m)

lui

him / to him / to her (indirect object)

Questions & Answers about Lui, c'est un ami.

Why do we start the sentence with Lui instead of Il?

Lui is a stressed pronoun (meaning "him"). In French, you can use a stressed pronoun at the start of a sentence to add emphasis, just like saying "Him, he's a friend" in English. You can't use a normal subject pronoun like il standing alone or separated by a comma.

Can I just say "Lui est un ami" without the c'est?

No, you can't use a stressed pronoun like lui as the actual subject of the verb. You still need the main subject and verb, which here is c'est (it is / he is). Lui is just sitting outside the main sentence to draw attention to the person.

Since we are talking about a specific man ("he"), why do we use c'est instead of il est?

This is a very common rule in French! When you identify someone using a noun that has an article in front of it (like un ami), you must use c'est. You only use il est when followed directly by an adjective or a profession without an article (like il est intelligent).

How would I change this sentence to say "Her, she is a friend"?

You would change the stressed pronoun lui to the feminine stressed pronoun elle, and make the noun feminine too: Elle, c'est une amie. Notice that c'est stays exactly the same!