Level A2 (Upper Beginner)
The French words of the day are les gens and les personnes, meaning “people”. In short, les gens is used for people in general and les personnes usually refers to specific individuals. Today you’ll learn:
Pronunciation
Kinds of words
Example sentences in French & English
RELATED LESSONS
An vs année (year)
Matin vs. matinee (morning)
Pronunciation
IPA pronunciation: gens /ʒɑ̃/ and personnes /le pɛʁ.sɔn/
Kind of words
Les gens is a masculine plural noun and les personnes is a feminine plural noun.
Example sentences
Les gens = people in general
Les gens is always plural. Never le gen or un gen. Les gens translates best to “the people” as in the people in a place such as country or city.
C’est un beau pays mais je n’aime pas les gens.
It’s a beautiful country but I don’t like the people.
Les gens dans ce pays fument de moins en moins.
The people in this country are smoking less and less.
Les personnes = specific individuals
Les personnes most commonly refers to specific individuals or individual people and can be both singular and plural: la personne/les personnes. Using gens in the following examples would be incorrect.
Il y a trois personnes dans la salle de classe.
There are three people in the classroom.
Combien de personnes vont venir ce soir ?
How many people are going to come tonight?
When referring to yourself as a person, use personne.
Je suis une personne responsable.
I am a responsible person.
The word personne is always used in a negation form to mean “nobody” or “anybody”. It can also be the subject of a sentence.
Je ne vois personne. I don’t see anybody.
Personne ne me voit. Nobody sees me.
Peuple
There is a third and less frequently used way of saying people: le peuple. For example, “le peuple français”, meaning “French people” or “the French”.
Le peuple français vit bien.
French people live well.
RELATED LESSONS
An vs année
Two other words which students commonly confuse are an (masculine) and année (feminine). This lesson explains the subtle difference between these two words with clear example sentences.
Matin vs matinée
The words le matin and la matinee both mean “morning”. However, they have specific usages for specific contexts, which we explain in the following lesson.
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