Subject Pronouns
Goal: To introduce the subject pronouns.
What are subject pronouns?
In English, they are: "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "them."
Pronouns represent nouns that are the subjects of sentences. For example, in the below sentence, the subject is "Marie."
Marie is my sister.
If you wanted to make this sentence contain a subject pronoun, you would remove the original subject, "Marie," and replace it with the pronoun "she."
Marie is my sister = She is my sister.
In French, the same technique of replacing nouns with pronouns is used. For example: this sentence says "Jacques is my brother."
Jacques est mon frère.
The subject of the above sentence is "Jacques". If you wanted to use a subject pronoun, you would replace the original subject with "il," which is French for "he."
Jacques est mon frère = Il est mon frère.
Every English subject pronoun has a corresponding pronoun in French.
English | French |
I | Je, or when the next word starts with a vowel, j' |
you | if informal (familiar), to a peer or friend: tu |
if formal, to a group or superior: vous | |
he | il |
she | elle |
it | if in reference to a masculine object, il; |
we | nous |
them | if in reference to a group of women or feminine objects, elles |
if in reference to a group of men or masculine objects, or a mixed group of men and women or masculine and feminine objects, ils |
