Describe people: 'être' 3rd person plural and regular plural adjectives

I can use 'ils sont' and 'elles sont' with regular plural adjectives to describe what they (masculine and feminine) are like.

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Year 7

Describe people: 'être' 3rd person plural and regular plural adjectives

I can use 'ils sont' and 'elles sont' with regular plural adjectives to describe what they (masculine and feminine) are like.

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Share activities with pupils

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Learning être in the third person plural

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Using être with regular plural adjectives

6 clips

Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

'Nous sommes' and 'vous êtes' are the 1st and 2nd persons plural of the verb 'être', to be, being.
'Ils sont' and 'elles sont' are the third person plural of the verb 'être', to be, being.
Adjectives often add -e in the feminine form, this is regular adjective gender agreement.
Adjectives often add -s as the regular marker in the plural form.
Describing a photograph is a useful exercise to consolidate key grammar and vocabulary.

Keywords

Être - irregular French verb meaning to be, being
Ils sont - part of the verb être meaning they are (m, m/f)
Elles sont - part of the verb être meaning they are (f)
Adjective agreement - when the ending of an adjective matches the noun it describes in gender and number

Common misconception

There is just one way of referring to 'they' in French, as in English.

There is both a masculine and feminine form of the pronoun 'they'. Use 'ils' when referring to a group of boys or a group of boys and girls, and use 'elles' when referring to a group of girls.

You may wish to print off or project additional photographs for the photo description task which may be more relevant to or appropriate for your class context.