Lesson 3: Subject Pronouns

Fast and Friendly French for Fun: A Beginner's Guide to French

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
you	if formal, to a group or superior: vous
he	il
she	elle
it	if in reference to a masculine object, il; if in reference to a feminine object, elle
we	nous
them	if in reference to a group of women or feminine objects, elles
them	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

Please look over this chart several times. Subject pronouns are the bases of many French sentences and are extremely important to the language.

Return to the top
New Lesson

"Savez-vous les pronoms? Cliquez ici pour savoir!"

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; if in reference to a feminine object, elle

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

Please look over this chart several times. Subject pronouns are the bases of many French sentences and are extremely important to the language.

Return to the top New Lesson

(Do you know the subject pronouns? Click here to find out!)

What are subject pronouns?
In English, they are: "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "them."

if in reference to a masculine object, il;
if in reference to a feminine object, elle

Return to the top
New Lesson