French
In French both the singular and plural pronouns in the third person are marked for grammatical gender, and the antecedent always has grammatical gender. The masculine form of "they", ils, is always used when referring to a plural and grammatically masculine antecedent, while for plural antecedents that are grammatically feminine the feminine form elles of "they" is used. Likewise, in the singular the third person pronoun il is used to refer to grammatically masculine antecedents and elle is used to refer to grammatically feminine antecedents. Thus, for both generic and non-generic antecedents, the natural gender of the antecedent, whether known or unknown, is irrelevant, as the deciding factor for the choice of a referring pronoun is the grammatical gender of the antecedent.
Some French speakers advocate the use of created gender-free pronouns, such as illes or els for ils et elles ("they (masculine) and they (feminine)") and celleux or ceulles for celles et ceux ("those (feminine) and those (masculine)").
Read more about this topic: Generic Antecedent, Treatment in Various Languages
Famous quotes containing the word french:
“‘’Tis all dependin’ whether
The ould engin’ howlds together—’
‘And it might now, Michael, so it might!’”
—William Percy French (1854–1920)
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Have ye got the parcel there for Mrs White?
Ye haven’t! Oh, begorra!
Say it’s comin’ down tomorra—
And it might now, Michael, so it might!’”
—William Percy French (1854–1920)