14 - How to Say "I," "You," "She..." in French (Subject Pronouns)
Know how to say "I," "you," "she," etc. in French? In this episode, you'll learn what the French subject pronouns are. Bonus: you'll also learn lots of French words to describe the different rooms in the house. 🏠
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Intro: Welcome to the French Made Easy podcast, where I give you all the basics you need to speak French clearly and confidently. I'm your host, Mathilde, and I'm a French teacher, mumpreneur, and bread and cheese lover. Join me as I dive into all things French for beginners, and deliver to you bite-sized and easy-to-follow lessons every Tuesday. Let's get started, "on commence"!
Hello everyone! Bonjour tout le monde! 👋 Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast. This is episode 14, "quatorze." In today's lesson, you will learn the French subject pronouns. Bonus, you'll also learn tons of French words to describe the different rooms in the house. 🏠 So a bit of grammar and a bit of vocabulary today.
Alright, I hope you've got your cheat sheet in front of you because this lesson is a tiny bit harder than the ones before and there are a lot of new words. And seeing the words while hearing them will make the whole learning process a lot faster and easier. So if you don't have it yet, go download it first, it's free. Or at least check out the transcript! And after the lesson, don't forget to download your exercises, so you can start practicing what you’ve learned. And that's also free.
You ready? C’est parti.
Alright. So first, what are subject pronouns?
Subject pronouns are used to replace nouns that are the subject of the sentence.
For example, if I say to you, "Marc is in the house." Instead of repeating "Marc," I can say, "He is in the house." "He" replaces "Marc," and "he" is the subject pronoun. Other ones are "I," "You," "She," etc.
And now that we all know that let's see what they are in French.
So let's start with the singular forms. Then we'll do the plural.
Repeat after me.
"je", is "I"
"tu" is "you"
"il" is "he" or 'it"
"elle" is "she" or "it"
"on" is “one” or "we"
Très bien! Now, let me explain each singular subject pronoun.
"je" is the 1st person of the singular, and it means "I."
For example, "Je suis dans le salon." - "I am in the living room." 🛋
Something to be aware of is that "je" changes to "j'" when followed by a vowel.
For example: "J'ai un balcon." - “I have a balcony.” You don't say "je ai un balcon” ⛔️ but "j'ai un balcon,” because "ai" starts with a vowel.
Ok, onto the 2nd person of the singular "tu" which means "you." It’s singular and informal.
Why do I say singular and informal?
Because in French, there are two ways of saying "you." You should use "tu" only if you are talking to one person that you know well or if you are talking to a child or a young person.
For example, if I want to say to one person that I know, "you are in the bathroom." In French, I'm going to say, "Tu es dans la salle de bain." 🛁
We'll come back to the second, formal, way of saying "you" in just a few minutes.
Great, now let's see the 3rd person of the singular - "il", "elle" and "on."
Starting with "il"- this can mean "he" or "it."
For example. "Il est dans la cuisine." - "He is in the kitchen." 👨🍳
Ok, next is "Elle" - this can mean "she" or "it."
For example, "Elle est dans le jardin." - "She is in the garden." 🌱
Now, I skipped over "it," as it's a bit more complicated. There's no direct equivalent of "it" in French. For example, in English, if I say: "the apple is in the kitchen." To replace "apple," I can use "it." "It is in the kitchen." But in French, that’s a bit different.
Remember, all nouns have a gender in French: they are either feminine or masculine. Well, "it" translates as either "il" or "elle" (he or she.)
So, the apple in French is "la pomme," and it is a feminine noun. So I'm going to say: "Elle est dans la cuisine." 🍎
And what if I'm talking about chocolate? "Chocolate" in French is "le chocolat," and it's a masculine noun. So here I'm going to say "Il est dans la cuisine." 🍫
Finally, for the 3rd person of the singular, we have "on" - which means “one” or "we."
If you’ve learned French in high school, you probably didn’t learn that “on” is “we” because it’s informal, modern French. Nowadays though, French speakers almost always use “on” to say “we.” I'll teach you the more formal version of "we" in a second.
This only thing you have to remember here is that when you start conjugating verbs, which is for a bit later, “on” is used the same way as “il” or “elle", as a singular pronoun, which, I agree can be a bit confusing because “we” is meant to be plural.
For example, if I say: “You and I are in the hallway” = “we are in the hallway” I’m going to say in French "On est dans le couloir."
Good. To recap, the singular pronoun subjects are:
"je"
"tu"
"il"
"elle"
"on"
Great. I hope that made sense to you. Stay with me, we’re almost there!
Let's move onto the plural forms.
Repeat after me:
"nous" is "we"
"vous" is "you"
"ils" or "elles" are "they"
Ok, let's talk about each plural subject pronoun.
The 1st person of the plural, "nous," is the more formal way to say "we".
For example: "Nous sommes dans la chambre." - "We are in the bedroom." 🛏
But to be honest with you, French speakers usually use "nous" in formal writing. So in most situations, we just use "on."
I would have to dedicate a full lesson on the difference between "on" and "nous" because it can be quite tricky for beginners to grasp. Don't worry for this lesson why one version is regarded as singular and the other as plural. For today, it's enough to know “on” is informal, “nous” is formal.
The 2nd person of the plural is "vous." Which is the other way to say "you." You use "vous" if you are talking to someone you don't know very well, or someone you need to be formal with, OR if you are talking to a group of people.
For example, "Vous êtes dans le grenier" - "You are in the attic." You could say this when you are talking to more than one person, but it could also mean that you are talking to ONE person that you don't know very well. Honestly, you'd probably never say that to anyone you don't know, because that's creepy, but that was the only example I had.
And by the way, the reason why "vous" is always regarded as plural will become clearer when we start conjugating verbs. But that's a topic for another lesson.
The 3rd person of the plural is "ils" and "elles": which both mean "they." "Ils" is the masculine form, and "elles" the feminine.
Note that both sound the same as the "il" and "elle" from the singular forms. But the difference is that there is a silent "S" at the end.
For example: "They are in the garage." If they are men, I will say, "Ils sont dans le garage." But if they are women, I will say, "Elles sont dans le garage."
Now, note that "Ils" refers to any group of nouns that includes at least ONE masculine noun. So, as an example, when you want to say "they are in the room," if there is a room filled with 100 women, you would say " "Elles sont dans la pièce." But if there is even just ONE man amongst 100 women, you would have to say, "Ils sont dans la pièce." Grammatically speaking in French, masculine is stronger than feminine. Just grammatically speaking, of course. 😉
Alright, now it's time for our usual recap.
Let's repeat all the subject pronouns.
je (I)
tu (you, singular informal)
il (he)
elle (she)
on (we, informal)
nous (we, formal)
vous (you, plural informal)
ils with an "S" (they, masculine)
elles with an "S" (they, feminine)
Guys, you are DONE. Bien joué. Well done.
✍️ Now, I'd love to hear from you. Can you give me one phrase using any of the French subject pronouns? Let me know in the comments over at mathildekien.com, I'll put the link below.
And that brings us to the end of our lesson, thank you so so much for listening. Don't forget to download your lesson's exercises by clicking the link in the episode's notes. Make sure you hit subscribe, so you don't miss out on any new episodes. And if you are enjoying this podcast, I'd really appreciate a quick rating and review on Apple Podcast!
Merci et à bientôt. 💗