Talking in a group in French: nous, vous, ils and on

Level A2

Talking in a group in French: nous, vous, ils and on

At a meeting, say where your group is, check what another group has and describe two other people. Match the subject to the verb: nous, vous and ils have their own forms, while everyday on meaning “we” uses the same verb form as il and elle.

Start from one person

Je suis ici means “I am here”; j’ai un livre means “I have a book”, with j’ before the vowel in ai. Ici is “here”, un livre is “a book”, and deux livres is “two books”; the plural -s in livres is silent. Parler is the infinitive “to speak”: je parle, tu parles and il/elle parle mean “I speak”, “you speak” and “he/she speaks”; français here means the French language. Keep the subject in these French sentences, including when English also needs one. If you have met on va, it means “we’re going” in a conversation about your group; on is the same everyday subject you will use below.

Check that the group has arrived

A host calls two participants who are arriving together: a speaks to the pair, and b answers for both people. Listen to vous êtes ici (“are you all here?”), nous sommes ici (“we are here”), vous avez deux livres (“do you all have two books?”) and nous avons deux livres (“we have two books”). These questions keep statement word order and rise in intonation; the two books belong to the group together, not necessarily two each.

Who belongs to the group?

Nous includes the speaker: nous sommes = “we are”, nous avons = “we have”. Vous addresses the group here: vous êtes = “you are”, vous avez = “you have”. Like English you, vous can refer to one person or to several people. Vous can also address one person politely, with the same verb forms, so context tells you how many people it means. Ils refers here to Léo and Hugo, two people being talked about: ils ont deux livres means “they have two books”. For an all-female group use elles, with the same plural verb forms: elles ont; ils also covers a mixed group. Listen for the linking z sound in nous avons, vous avez and ils ont, and keep the subjects when you swap groups.

Nous / Vous / Ils verbe …

Everyday “we”, and another meaning of on

Speaking for your own group, nous parlons français and on parle français both mean “we speak French”; on is very common in everyday speech, while nous also occurs in speech and is common in more formal writing. On takes a singular verb form: on parle, on est, on a, compared with nous parlons, nous sommes, nous avons. This resembles English we in meaning in this context, but not in verb agreement. For recognition only, imagine a notice about the language used at a reception desk: on parle français ici means “French is spoken here”, with on referring to unspecified people, not necessarily “us”. The context decides the meaning; do not replace every on with nous.

A short map of parler

The second column is the present tense of parler, used with français in the audio examples below. In these forms, parle, parles and parlent sound alike: the written endings -e, -es and -ent are silent; parlons and parlez have audible endings. On this row, on means the speaker’s group. The table has no audio: use the sentence cards in the next section to hear the forms.

SubjectPresent form of parler
jeparle
tuparles
il / elleparle
onparle
nousparlons
vousparlez
ils / ellesparlent

Hear the same idea with different subjects

Listen and repeat one sentence at a time: nous parlons is “we speak”, vous parlez is “you all speak” and ils parlent is “they speak”. In the last sentence, ils refers to Léo and Hugo; for two women, elles parlent has the same verb form. Compare the sound of on parle with nous parlons, without adding an -ent sound to ils parlent.

Include people, then check your answers

You are arriving with a friend: say “We are here”; ask two other participants whether they have two books between them; say that Léo and Hugo have two books; then tell a new participant, using everyday on, “We speak French”. Try before reading the four answers below, then listen to check them in the same order. Keep this summary: nous sommes/avons/parlons, vous êtes/avez/parlez, ils ont/parlent; on meaning “we” still takes parle, est or a. You can practise one change of subject at a time.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons