Indirect objects are prepositional phrases with the object of the preoposition.
An indirect object is a noun that receives the action of a verb:
•Il jette la boule à Jacques. – He throws the ball to Jack.
•Il jette la boule à Marie. – He throws the ball to Mary.
•Il jette la boule à Jacques et Marie. – He throws the ball to Jack and Mary.
Lui and leur are indirect object pronouns. They replace nouns referring to people and mean to him/her
and to them respectively.
•lui – replaces a singular masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human
•leur – replaces a plural masculine or feminine indirect object referring to a human
An example follows:
•Il lui jette la boule. – He throws the ball to him.
•Il lui jette la boule. – He throws the ball to her.
•Il leur jette la boule. – He throws the ball to them.
Whether lui means to him or to her is given by context.
In English, “He throws him the ball” is also said, and means the same thing.
When used with the direct object pronouns le, la, and les, lui and leur come after those pronouns.
•Il la lui jette. – He throws it to him.
Note that while le, la, and les are used to replace people or inanimate objects, lui and leur are not used to replace innanimate objects and things.
Also note that unlike le and la, which are shortened to l’ when followed by a vowel, lui is never