Les livres sont pour elles.

Breakdown of Les livres sont pour elles.

être
to be
le livre
the book
elles
they (feminine)
pour
for

Questions & Answers about Les livres sont pour elles.

Why does "them" translate to elles here? Isn't elles the word for "they"?
In French, elles does double duty! You probably know it as a subject pronoun meaning "they" for an all-female group. But it is also used as a stressed pronoun meaning "them" when it comes right after a preposition like pour (for), avec (with), or de (of).
What if the books were for a group of men? Would I use ils?
No, you wouldn't use ils here. The word ils is only used as a subject pronoun (the one doing the action). After a preposition like pour, you must use a stressed pronoun. For an all-male or mixed-gender group, the stressed pronoun for "them" is eux. So you would say: Les livres sont pour eux.
Could I say "Les livres sont pour leur"?
No, though this is a very common mix-up! The word leur is used for "them", but only when it acts as an indirect object pronoun placed directly before a verb (like je leur parle = I speak to them). When "them" follows a preposition like pour, you must use the stressed pronouns elles or eux.
Do I pronounce the "s" at the end of livres and elles?
You don't pronounce them! In French, the final -s used to make nouns and pronouns plural is almost always silent. When speaking, you only know "books" is plural here because of the plural article les (pronounced "lay") and the plural verb sont.

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