Breakdown of Je vais lui rendre le livre.
je
I
le livre
the book
lui
him / to him / to her (indirect object)
aller
to go
rendre
to return, to give back
Questions & Answers about Je vais lui rendre le livre.
Why is lui placed before rendre instead of before vais?
In French, when you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive (like the near future tense here: vais + rendre), the object pronoun usually goes immediately before the infinitive it belongs to. You are returning the book to him (lui rendre), not going to him (lui vais).
The English translation says 'to him'. Could this sentence also mean 'I am going to return the book to her'?
Yes! As an indirect object pronoun, lui means both 'to him' and 'to her'. It does not change based on the gender of the person you are talking about. You would only know from the surrounding conversation whether it refers to a man or a woman.
Why use rendre for 'return'? Can I use retourner instead?
When you mean 'to give a thing back to a person', you must use rendre. The verb retourner is a false friend; it is mostly used when a person is physically going back to a place (like returning to Paris or returning home).
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