Ou s'il s'arrête brusquement

Karl G.B2Kwiziq community member

Ou s'il s'arrête brusquement

Why is, ”ou s'il s'arrête brusquement” in third person singular instead of third person plural?

Merci

This question relates to:French writing exercise "Annoying Things"

Freeform Writing Exercise A1

Asked 5 months ago

Like0Answer2

CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Karl,

There was a hint you might have missed -

"they" = Use singular "il", i.e. quelqu'un

But if you didn't and are asking why we use the third person singular, then Maarten's answer is correct.

bonne Continuation !

Like05 months ago

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Karl,

effectively ‘ they ‘ in English can replaced by ‘ he or she ‘, and represents the singular ‘ someone ‘ referred to previously in the original English sentence.

French doesn’t replace the impersonal singular ‘ quelqu’un’ with a ‘ plural ‘ pronoun, but stays with the singular 3rd person pronoun.

Like15 months ago

Karl G. asked: