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Pronouns can replace nouns. Can I take sentence with a verb used pronominally, and write a version of that sentence that restores the noun that the pronoun replaced?

example:

  • Sarah s' est demandé pourquoi elle ne peut pas pleurer.
  • Sarah a demandé à elle-même pourquoi elle ne peut pas pleurer.

I am most curious about if I can do this with verbs that don't exist outside of their pronominal form:

  • Je m'en vais.

  • J'en vais à moi.

  • Alice s'est ravisée.

  • Alice a ravisé à elle.

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No, you cannot really do that, as it sounds really heavy and weird. That being said, every French people would understand the meaning of your sentence, though.

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    You just can't do it. It's not only "heavy and weird", it's grammatically incorrect (so obviously it sounds weird). I also doubt anybody will fully understand what you're saying when you say "J'en vais à moi" ou "Alice a ravisé à elle".
    – Laurent S.
    Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 14:39

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