ils
French
Etymology
Inherited from Vulgar Latin illī, which sounded il in Old French, to which a plural -s was added. While il was the nominative form from late Latin, els, eus was the oblique form ("them") that had evolved from late Latin illōs, and is the ancestor of modern French eux'.
In Old French, "they", being a nominative, was il from late Latin *illi, thus it didn't have the final -s, thus it was il used both for "he" and "they". The -s was added at the end of the 13th century in some regions, at the time the declension system of Old French started to collapse. As a consequence, some oïl languages in France have retained the original Old French il-form, and in some other regions, the ils-form supplanted the older one. Some dialects have even retained both forms depending on the locals.
See cognates in regional languages in France: Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language, etymology language or family code; the value "roa-tou" is not valid. See WT:LOL, WT:LOL/E and WT:LOF.; Bourbonnais-Berrichon ils; Bourguignon âs; Franc-Comtois and Poitevin-Saintongeais és; Gallo i and iz; Norman i and is; Picard is and i; Franco-Provençal ils; Occitan els (Gascon eus); Catalan ells; Corsican egli.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "standard and higher registers" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /il/, (in liaison) /il.z‿/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "familiar and informal registers" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "France" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /i/, (in liaison) /i.z‿/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Quebec" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /i/, (prevocalic) /j/
Audio (France): (file) - Homophones: île, il
Pronoun
ils m pl (third-person plural, singular il, accusative les, dative leur, emphatic eux, possessive determiner leur)
Related terms
Template:French personal pronouns
Further reading
- “ils”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Swedish
Noun
ils
Anagrams
- French terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- French terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French pronouns
- French personal pronouns
- Quebec French
- French informal terms
- Swedish non-lemma forms
- Swedish noun forms