Borrowed fromAncient Greekνοῦς(noûs) orνόος(nóos,“mind”).
nous (uncountable)
nous
nous
nous
nous
Inherited fromMiddle Frenchnous, fromOld Frenchnous,nos, fromLatinnōs, fromProto-Italic*nōs.
In several dialects of French,je may be used instead ofnous (j'allons instead ofnous allons,je voyons instead ofnous voyons etc.), this use was perceived as peasant-like and thus often mocked since the 15th century (for example by Molière). However this use survived and spread in various regions of the so-calleddomaine d'oïl (linguistic area starting above Auvergne where the oïl varieties of Romance developed from the 4th or 5th century). The regions of France where this use ofje (from Latin ego "I") instead ofnous, nos (from Latinnos, "we") was recorded are Normandy, Romance-speaking Brittany, Poitou and Anjou, Champagne, Ardennes, Bourgogne and Franche-Comté, Dauphiné, Berry, Touraine, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine.See cognates in regional languages in France:Angevinje andnous,Bourbonnais-Berrichonje andnous,Bourguignoni andnous,Champenoisju andnous,Franc-Comtoisi andnôs,Galloje andnouz,Lorrainnos,Normanje andnos,Orléanaisje andnous,Picardnos,Poitevin-Saintongeaisi/jhe andnous,Franco-Provençalnos,Occitannosautres (Provençalnousautes),Catalannosaltres,Corsicannoi.
nous (first-person plural,singularje,objectnous,emphaticnous,possessive determinernotre)
| number | person | gender | nominative (subject) | accusative (direct complement) | dative (indirect complement) | locative (at) | genitive (of) | disjunctive (tonic) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | first | — | je,j’ | me,m’ | — | — | moi | |
| second | — | tu | te,t’ | — | — | toi | ||
| third | masculine | il | le,l’ | lui | y | en | lui | |
| feminine | elle | la,l’ | elle | |||||
| indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| reflexive4 | — | se,s’ | — | — | soi | |||
| plural | first | — | nous | nous | — | — | nous | |
| second2 | — | vous | vous | — | — | vous | ||
| third | masculine | ils3 | les | leur | y | en | eux3 | |
| feminine | elles | elles | ||||||
1On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
2Vous is also used as the polite singular form.
3Ils andeux are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.
4 These forms are also used as third person plural reflexive.
FromAncient Greekνοῦς(noûs) orνόος(nóos,“mind”).
nous m (pluralnous)
FromOld Frenchnous.
nous
nous
FromOld Frenchnous.
nous
