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!
We know you look to Yabla for language, not math, so apologies in advance to any arithmophobes out there. Yes, we're going to talk some numbers today, but you can count on us to go easy on you.
Remember last time, when we talked about French adjectives that come before the noun they modify? Well, there's another category of adjectives that behave that way: numbers!
Parmi les expériences inoubliables des deux plongeurs...
Among the unforgettable experiences of the two divers...
Caption 20, Le Journal - Sillonner & photographier les océans
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In this video about Pierre and Laurent's beautiful underwater photography, you see an example where the adjective deux (two) comes before the noun plongeurs (divers). It's just like in English: "two divers."
And staying on the numerical track, when an adjective indicates a place in a series, like premier (first), prochain (next), or dernier (last), it should also be placed in front of the noun it qualifies. For example, le premier président (the first president).
If you would rather be on top of the water than underneath it, take a look at this lightning trip around the world in 50 days. Captain Bruno Peyron and his crew break Steve Fossett's record on their impressive catamaran.
Lorsque le jeune Bruno Peyron boucle le premier tour
When the young Bruno Peyron completed his first trip
du monde en équipage et sans escale...
around the world with a crew and without stopping...
Caption 17, Le Journal - Le record du Tour de Monde!
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Notice the adjective premier (first) that precedes the noun tour (trip), because premier indicates a place in a series (the first place).
However, be aware that prochain (next) and dernier (last) do not always precede the noun they modify. In fact, they follow the noun when they indicate a notion of time, as when they are used with a week, month, or year. For example: le mois prochain (next month).
We hear an example in the video about French youth up in arms against the loi Fillon designed to reform French education.
Trois mille à Lyon, ils étaient deux fois plus la semaine dernière.
Three thousand in Lyon, they were twice as many last week.
Caption 7, Le Journal - Manifestations des lycéens
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In this instance, the adjective dernière (last) is placed after the noun semaine (week) because it indicates an expression of time: the protest is simmering down a bit compared to the previous week.
Finally, one last number-related point: a tip on where to place an adjective if, after all you have learned from the Yabla lessons, you still aren't quite sure where the darn thing should go. It's easy math: count and compare the number of syllables in the two words, adjective and noun. Most often, the qualifying adjective is placed in front of the noun if the noun is composed of a greater number of syllables than the adjective. In other words, if the adjective is shorter, it goes in front.
Corrine, a young and charming French woman, shows us an example of this when talking about the merits of her hometown.
On a la chaleur, on a, euh...
We've got warm weather, we have, uh...
peut-être la pollution, mais on...
maybe pollution, but we...
en tout cas, on a de beaux paysages.
in any case, we have beautiful landscapes.
Captions 15-16, Fanny et Corrine - Leurs origines
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Notice how Corrine mentions Marseilles' beaux paysages (beautiful landscapes). The adjective beaux (beautiful) has fewer syllables than the noun paysages (landscapes), so beaux is placed before paysages.
Conversely, the adjective is usually placed after the noun if it has more syllables than does the noun. For example, you would say une voix horrible (a horrible voice); the noun voix (voice) has fewer syllables than the adjective horrible, so the noun comes first.
Le Journal tells the story of Claudia Rusch, a young Francophile who was one of the first to scramble over the falling Berlin Wall to join a friend on that memorable day, November 9th, 1989.
...escalade ce grillage insupportable qui les sépare.
...scales this unbearable fence which separates them.
Caption 23, Le Journal - Le mur de Berlin s'écroule
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Here, because the adjective insupportable (unbearable) has a greater number of syllables than the noun grillage (fence), the adjective goes last.
See? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!
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