The pronouns je, il, elle

Pronouns are words like I, he or she that take the place of a noun . Pronouns that are used before a verb are said to be the subject of the verb, which means that they are carrying out the action of the verb. So in the phrase he eats the pronoun he is the subject because he is doing the eating.

The French word for I is je (or j’ if the verb starts with a vowel ). When it is used with regular –er verbs these take the ending -e:

Je donne les fleurs à ma soeur

I give the flowers to my sister

But when je is used with most other verbs they usually take the ending –s:

Je finis mes devoirs

I’m finishing my homework

The French words for he and she are il and elle. When they are used with regular –er verbs they take the ending -e, otherwise they usually take the ending -t:

Il / Elle parle bien le français

He / She speaks good French

Il / Elle est professeur

He / She’s a teacher

It’s important to remember that there is no separate word for it in French - it depends on the word it is referring to. If the word is masculine then you use il, and if it is feminine then you use elle:

Où est ton livre? - Il est dans mon cartable

Where’s your book. It’s in my schoolbag

Elle est bonne, cette tarte

This pie is nice