If I wanted to say “I told her”, does it make sense to say j’ai la dit. I know when you translate it it usually says je lui ai dit.
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So how does a person know if I’m talking about her or him if lui can be used for both?– Megan Merritt BretonCommented Jun 5, 2019 at 0:31
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1That should have been a comment to my reply, not to your question. Anyway, how do a person know if my cousin is a boy or a girl if I say "I told it to my cousin ?" (In French: Je l'ai dit à mon cousin / je l'ai dit à ma cousine) There are cases where a language is more precise, and others where it's less. You can always say: Je lui ai dit à elle (, pas a lui) if that's a critical piece of information.– jlliagreCommented Jun 5, 2019 at 0:51
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1 Answer
You can't use that syntax.
You can't put a pronoun in the middle of a conjugated verb, only adverbs like pas (Je ne lui ai pas dit). The pronoun needs to be before the verb.
La is a direct object pronoun, but her (elle) is an indirect object of dire (j'ai dit à elle) so the right pronoun is lui, regardless of the gender. Lui means both to him and to her.
je lui ai dit.
Should you have used a direct object, la would have been the right pronoun:
La vérité, je l'ai dite.
or even both a direct and indirect object:
Ma sœur, la vérité, je la lui ai dite.
