Distinguishing between men and women with 'lui'

Question

How do you know 'lui' in the instance below is a woman?Il n'avait jamais pu lui avouer la vérité?

Chris Wirt · Accepted Answer

You don't know from this single sentence. Only context will tell whether lui refers to a man or a woman.

Jim Jones · Answer

Hi Erica,Difficult to comment without sight of the full context.What is the context of the fuller text within which your query sentence appears?Jim

Maarten Kamp · Answer

In this sentence, you do know - because of the translation.

As Chris has correctly noted, without the translation more context would be required. This would be either known, or enquired about in a conversation. In a more complete text, it would be unusual for the context not to be clear.