2.3 Subject Pronouns
Subject Pronouns
A subject pronoun stands for the subject in a sentence. In French, subject pronouns indicate number (singular or plural) and gender (masculine or feminine).
| Person | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Je | I |
| 2nd person | Tu | You |
| 3rd person | Il Elle On |
He/it She/it One/we (colloquial) |
| Person | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Nous | We |
| 2nd person | Vous | You |
| 3rd person | Ils Elles |
They (masculine) They (feminine) |
Important Notes
- In French, je (I) is not capitalized, except at the beginning of a sentence.
- Tu is informal, whereas vous is formal (see Chapter 1). Vous is also the plural form of tu and in this case, it is neither formal nor informal.
- In French, not only people but also things have gender. That is to say, things are either masculine or feminine. There is no separate pronoun for it. Il is masculine, used for he or masculine it. Elle is feminine, used for she or feminine it.
- On means one and is used in contexts where English speaker might use you informally. In Canadian English, the subject pronoun one (e.g., “Where does one sit at a hockey game?”) sounds stuffy, but its use is extremely common in French. On is also used in spoken French to mean we.
- If there is a mix of masculine and feminine people or objects, French always uses the masculine plural. A group of ten women and one man would use the subject pronoun ils.
Exercise 5: Subject Pronouns
Fill in the Blanks
Exercise 6: More Subject Pronouns
Fill in the Blanks
This section includes content derived from Liberté, originally released under CC BY-NC-SA, and Tex’s French Grammar, originally released under CC BY 3.0.
