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Qui est la femme avec lui ?

Qui est la femme avec lui ?
Who is the woman with him?
From Lesson 10:Stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui)·French

Questions & Answers about Qui est la femme avec lui ?

Why do we use lui here instead of il?
Il means "he" and is used as the subject of a verb (like in il est). After a preposition like avec (with), French requires a different form called a stressed pronoun. The stressed pronoun for "him" is lui.
If I wanted to say "with her", would I still use lui?
No. As a stressed pronoun after a preposition, lui strictly means "him". If you want to say "with her", you must use the feminine stressed pronoun elle, making it avec elle.
Why is the verb est used after Qui?
Qui (who) acts as the subject of the sentence here. When qui is the subject, the verb is always conjugated in the third-person singular (the "he/she/it" form). Therefore, we use est.
I've heard the word femme can also mean "wife". How do I know which one it is here?
Context is key! While une femme generally means "a woman", it usually translates to "wife" when paired with a possessive word, like sa femme (his wife) or ma femme (my wife). Since we just have la femme (the woman) here, it simply means "woman".
Is the "e" in femme pronounced like a normal French "e"?
Surprisingly, no! The word femme is a famous exception in French pronunciation. The "e" is pronounced like a short "a", so the word sounds like "fam".

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