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Il l'a fait soi-même - French Mistake

French mistakes analyzed and explained

By Laura K. Lawless, About.com

Mistakes will always be made in French, and now you can learn from them.

Wrong: Il l'a fait soi-même

Right: Il l'a fait lui-même

Explanation: The French pronoun soi is impersonal, which means you use it only with an impersonal subject, such as on or tout le monde. So you can say on l'a fait soi-même (we did it ourselves) or tout le monde l'a fait soi-même (everyone did it himself), but you can't say "il l'a fait soi-même," because il refers to a specific person. The correct way to say "he did it himself" is il l'a fait lui-même.

Related lessons: Soi | Stressed pronouns
 

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