Lui/leur ou à + tonique : téléphoner à, parler à…

Unité GR-17 · campagne 5 · je lui téléphone, mais je pense à elle.

Before this page: Quel pronom ? Le déterminant et la construction décident — the decision table that says when a group becomes le, en, y or lui. This page is the detail of one row. Which verbs keep à + a tonic pronoun for a person, and which take lui/leur, is sorted verb by verb on Personne ou chose : quand le pronom quitte le verbe.

Unit GR-15 ended on a promise: most à + person verbs do not keep à + tonic pronoun — they compress the person into lui/leur before the verb. This unit delivers that system.

The default: communication and transfer verbs → lui / leur. Téléphoner à, parler à, répondre à, écrire à, dire à, donner à, demander à, envoyer à — whenever the à-person is a recipient, the pronoun climbs in front of the verb:

• Tu téléphones à Marie ? — Oui, je lui téléphone. (never je téléphone à elle)
• Vous écrivez à vos clients ? — Oui, nous leur écrivons.
• Tu as répondu à tes parents ? — Oui, je leur ai répondu.

Note that lui here covers both genders — je lui parle can address him or her — and leur never takes an s.

The exception you already know: the penser/tenir/songer family → à + tonic. Je pense à elle, il tient à eux. These verbs treat the person as the fixed content of a preposition phrase, not a recipient.

Russian dative (ей звоню, им пишу) maps neatly onto lui/leur, which makes this the friendliest unit of the pillar — the risk is over-applying it to the penser family. The practice alternates the two verb classes until the split is automatic.

Going further

Same meaning, two constructions. French and Russian do not always agree on which verbs take a dative, and the French construction is what decides the pronoun:

The pair je lui téléphone / je l'appelle says the same thing with two constructions — learn the verb with its construction, not with its meaning.

The errors to watch.

No agreement with lui / leur. An indirect pronoun never makes the participle agree: Je leur ai écrit (not écrits). The full verb list, sorted into the parler and penser groups, is on Personne ou chose.

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Oui / non drill

A question, then two answers to write: the oui answer and the non answer, each with the complement replaced by its pronoun. Every answer is graded, and a wrong one names the rule it breaks.

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