Language/French/Grammar/ils-with-arbitrary-reference

ils with arbitrary reference

Plural Us may be used to refer to an indefinite or arbitrary group of people:

• Ils ont encore augmenté le prix de l'essence

They have put the price of petrol up again

• Ils disent qu'il va y avoir de l'orage

They say that there will be a storm

• Comment votent-ils par ici?

How do they vote around here?

Don't hesitate to look into these other pages after completing this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Ditransitive verbs & The future.

Other Lessons

• Number differences between French and English nouns
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — No change in written or spoken French
• Agreement of past participle if direct object is placed before
• Prepositions
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Dates
• Polite Form
• Nouns which have the same spoken form but two different written forms
• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from nouns
• Optional use of neutral le
• Polite Form
• Cardinal Numbers — When to use figures and when to use words
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English once twice
• Adjectives agreeing with just one noun
• An adjective agreeing with nouns linked by et, ou or ni