People and Individuals

Did you know that in French, "a person" is always feminine, regardless of their gender? That is, the word personne is always feminine, even when it refers to a male person. Our friend Farmer François refers to himself as une personne (not un personne) when talking to us about his vegetable stand:

Moi, je suis une personne qui est né dans la banlieue.

Me, I'm someone who was born in the suburbs.

Caption 48, Farmer François - Le stand de légumes
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And in another video, a woman describes a male friend of hers as la seule personne (not le seul personne):

C'était un Français, bien sûr. C'est la seule personne que je connais à West Berlin.

It was a Frenchman, of course. He's the only person I knew in West Berlin.

Captions 18-19, Le Journal - Le mur de Berlin s'écroule
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On the flip side, "an individual" is always masculine:

Ce n'est pas Bérangère qui la regarde mais un individu pour le moins étrange.

It's not Bérangère who is watching her but a rather strange individual.

Caption 10, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Espion dans l'immeuble - Part 2
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Elle est un individu sain.
She is a healthy individual.

There's an interesting combination of personne and individu in this article about the recent evacuation of Mont-Saint-Michel. The subject of the article is a man who made threats against police at the popular French tourist destination. He's designated as both il (referring to individu) and elle (referring to personne):

Selon Ouest-France, l'individu aurait affirmé vouloir «tuer des policiers». Descendu de la navette, il se serait ensuite volatilisé avant l'arrivée des gendarmes.... Plusieurs témoins ont signalé cette personne alors qu'elle rentrait sur le site touristique, a annoncé la gendarmerie.

According to Ouest-France, the individual expressed a desire to "kill police officers." After getting off the shuttle, he reportedly disappeared before the officers arrived.... Several witnesses identified this person when he returned to the tourist site, the police reported.

Don't forget that personne can also be used as a pronoun in combination with ne, meaning "no one":

Maintenant on dit: "Il n'y a pas un chat", pour parler d'un endroit où il n'y a personne.

Now one says, "There's not one cat" [not a soul] to talk about a place where there isn't anyone.

Caption 13, Manon et Clémentine - Mots et animaux
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Personne ne peut vivre là-dedans!

No one could live in there!

Caption 16, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci - Part 4
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Stay tuned for Patricia's upcoming video on ne... personne and similar expressions, part of her series on negation.

Thanks to Michael H. for bringing this topic to our attention!

Topics Vocabulary