Je tu il elle on vous - Singular French Subject Pronouns

Je tu il elle on vous - Singular French Subject Pronouns To replace a noun, French uses a word called â€Å"a pronoun†. You choose this pronoun according to both the grammatical value of the word it replaces and the meaning of the word it replaces. Anne est au marcheÃŒ . Elle est avec Mary.Anne is at the market. She is with Mary   To replace â€Å"Anne† in the second sentence, I used â€Å"elle† (she). â€Å"Elle† is a subject pronoun: it replaces a noun subject of the verb, and its a third person singular to match Anne which is a person about whom I am speaking, feminine, one person, so she. What is a Subject? The subject is the person or thing that does the action of the verb.   How do you Find the Subject of a Sentence in French? There is an easy way to find the subject of a sentence, and its important in French you learn this grammatical question in order to be able to find the subject of a verb without any doubt. First, find the verb. Then ask: â€Å"who verb† or â€Å"what verb†.  The answer to that question will be your subject. A subject is a noun (Camille, flower, room...) or a pronoun (I, you, they...). It can be a person, a thing, a place, an idea...   Examples:  I paint.Who paints?Answer: I paint. â€Å"I† is the subject. Camille is teaching French.Who is teaching?Answer:  Camille is teaching.â€Å"Camille† is the subject.   What is happening to Camille?What’s happening?Answer:  What is happening.â€Å"What† is the subject (This one was trickier, wasn’t it?)   French Subject Pronouns Replacing One Person In French, the list of singular subject pronouns is: Je (or j’ vowel or h, its called an elision) I  Ã‚   Tu (never t’) you singular informal   Il it, he - long â€Å"ee† sound​ Elle it, she - short clip â€Å"L† sound On - this one is more difficult to understand. It used to mean â€Å" one â€Å", but nowadays is used in casual French to say â€Å" we , instead of the now more formal/written form â€Å" nous â€Å". So although its listed as a singular pronoun, nowadays its mostly used to replace several people, so for a plural. See my lesson on on. Vous you, one person, formal. Note that vous is also the pronoun we use for you plural, when you say you to talk to more than one person (yous guys :-) Traditionally, vous is listed as a plural subject pronoun, although it can and does often refer to only one person. Its confusing, I know, so I wrote a whole lesson on tu versus vous. ​French Subject Pronouns Replacing Several People In French, the list of plural subject pronouns (replacing several people) is: Nous we - S is silent, but becomes Z when followed by a vowel or an h. (Nowadays, â€Å" nous â€Å" is used in a formal context and in writing mostly. In conversation, we tend to use â€Å"onâ€Å"). Vous you plural, both formal and informal - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. Ils they masculine or they masculine and feminine - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. Elles they feminine ONLY - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. ​Important : In Pronunciation Il ils / elle elles â€Å"Il† and ils have the same pronunciation, sort of an English eel, and â€Å"Elle† has the same pronunciation as its plural form â€Å"Elles† sort of an English   L sound . Do not pronounce the S to remember the spelling; it would mess up your pronunciation! Oh, and since Im talking about pronunciation, you will soon see that most verbs will take an silent ent to match with ils and elles - Im not explaining the whole French conjugation concept here yet, just planting a seed: this ent matching ils and elles will always be silent. Its not pronounced an, its not pronounced at all. Never in a verb. Its a very bad, but very common mistake French student make. No it Subject Pronoun in French There is no â€Å"it† form in French. Everything: objects, concepts, animals etc. are either masculine or  feminine in French, and are therefore referred to as â€Å"il† or â€Å"elle†. So dont think of il and elle as being only he and she, they also mean it. It will be weird at first, but you will get used to it, I promise.   What Do First, Second, Third Person Singular and Plural Mean? This concept is often baffling to student of French, but its a standard for grammatical jargon. Subject pronouns are often referred to as persons and this is how most grammar books will present a French verb conjugation : a table, with 3 lines, and two columns. As an example, I will take the verb chanter, to sing, in the present indicative tense. Singular Plural Je chante Nous chantons Tu chantes Vous chantez Il, elle, on chante Ils, elles chantent Je is often referred to as the first person singular or 1ps, tu as second person singular or 2ps... can you guess nous? 1st person plural. Which makes ils and elles both third person plural. This presentation is super confusing if you ask me since vous for example could replace BOTH a singular or a plural... But its very common to talk about verbs this way in French, and most French teachers are so accustom to it that they wont even understand that its weird...   French Subject Pronouns in Detail So now that you get an overview of the singular French subject pronouns, lets look at them individually. There is a lot to be said on each. Singular French Subject Pronouns Je Tu Il Elle (what about moi, me, mon...?) Plural French Subject Pronouns Nous, Vous, Ils, Elles (please dont say the s)The Misunderstood French Subject Pronoun on. Finally, before you can go ahead and start conjugating your French verbs, I will encourage you to learn more about Tu versus Vous - A French Dilemma.   I post exclusive mini lessons, tips, pictures and more daily on my Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest  pages - so join me there! https://www.facebook.com/frenchtoday https://twitter.com/frenchtoday https://www.pinterest.com/frenchtoday/