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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Explication de « lui dit-il » et « lui dit-elle »

You are right.
These two sentences mean the same thing (with masculine speaker):

Il (lui) dit « Va à la voiture »
« Va à la voiture » (lui) dit-il.

It fits your second exemple “Sire, lui dit-il…”. Here, I guess “Le petit prince” is talking, because of “Sire”, which must refer to the king, not the prince. But it may be confirmed by the context.

Now, with a feminine speaker:

Elle (lui) dit « Va à la voiture »
« Va à la voiture » (lui) dit-elle.

It fits your first example “J’ai été sotte, lui dit-elle“, where “she” (the flower) talks. We know the flower is talking because of “sotte”, which is feminine.

The difference is the position of the quote. Note that “lui” is facultative, and can be used for a boy or a girl. (If “Le Petit Prince” was “La Petite Princesse”, you would also say “lui dit-il”)

In incises, the sentences are always reversed in French.

− J’ai été sotte, lui dit-elle enfin. Je te demande pardon. Tâche d’être heureux.

is translated in English

“I have been silly,” she said to him, at last. “I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy…”

So the incise is in regular order:

elle lui dit enfin

Elle is the subject which is then feminine (the flower talks).

Lui is the object, a “neutral” pronoun here, whether the flower speaks to a male or a female, it is always lui here.

In

– Sire, lui dit-il… je vous demande pardon de vous interroger…

Il is the subject which is masculine, the Petit Prince.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?