🙋 Personal pronouns

📖 In short

Pronouns are little words we use instead of nouns so we don't repeat them, like “I”, “you” and “he”. They're the first thing we need to conjugate verbs.

🔎 The lesson

1 Subject pronouns

Pronoun	Meaning
je	I
tu	You (one friend)
il	He
elle	She
nous	We
vous	You (several, or polite)
ils	They (boys or mixed)
elles	They (girls only)

2 je becomes j'

Before a vowel we write j': j'aime (I like), j'ai (I have).

J'aime les fraises.I like strawberries.
J'ai un frère.I have a brother.

3 il and elle for things too

We use il for every masculine noun and elle for every feminine noun, even if it's a thing.

Le livre ? Il est rouge.The book? It's red.
La table ? Elle est grande.The table? It's big.

4 ils for a mixed group

If a group has boys and girls together, we use ils. We only use elles if the whole group is girls.

Sami et Lina ? Ils jouent.Sami and Lina? They're playing.
Lina et Maya ? Elles chantent.Lina and Maya? They're singing.

💡 Watch out!

French has no special pronoun for two people (Arabic does): for two we just say ils or elles.
vous means “you” to several people, and also “you” to one person, said respectfully.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Which pronoun fits Sami et Lina?

2 La maison : ... est belle.

3 How do we write je before aime?

→ Plurals in French ← Adjectives and agreement