ils

See also: ILS and ILs

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin illī, which sounded il in Old French, to which a plural -s was added. While il was the nominative form from late Latin, els, eus was the oblique form ("them") that had evolved from late Latin illōs, and is the ancestor of modern French eux'.

In Old French, "they", being a nominative, was il from late Latin *illi, thus it didn't have the final -s, thus it was il used both for "he" and "they". The -s was added at the end of the 13th century in some regions, at the time the declension system of Old French started to collapse. As a consequence, some oïl languages in France have retained the original Old French il-form, and in some other regions, the ils-form supplanted the older one. Some dialects have even retained both forms depending on the locals.

See cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin, Champenois, Lorrain, and Orléanais is; Bourbonnais-Berrichon ils; Bourguignon âs; Franc-Comtois and Poitevin-Saintongeais és; Gallo i and iz; Norman i and is; Picard is and i; Franco-Provençal ils; Occitan els (Gascon eus); Catalan ells; Corsican elli.

Pronunciation

• (standard and higher registers) IPA^(key): /il/, (in liaison) /il.z‿/
• (familiar and informal registers, France)
  • (France) IPA^(key): /i/, (in liaison) /i.z‿/
  • (Quebec) IPA^(key): /i/, (prevocalic) /j/

• Audio (France)

  (file)

• Homophones: île, il

Pronoun

ils m pl (third-person plural, singular il, accusative les, dative leur, emphatic eux, possessive determiner leur)

1. they (male or mixed group)
2. (Quebec, informal) they (female)

Related terms

French personal pronouns

Number	Person	Gender	Nominative (subject)	Accusative (direct complement)	Dative (indirect complement)	Disjunctive (tonic)
Singular	First	—	je, j’	me, m’		moi
	Second	—	tu	te, t’		toi
	Third	Masculine	il	le, l’	lui	lui
		Feminine	elle	la, l’		elle
		Gender neutral5	iel	lea		ellui
		Indeterminate	on1	—	—	—
		Reflexive	—	se, s’4		soi4
Plural	First	—	nous	nous		nous
	Second	—	vous2	vous2,3		vous2
	Third	Masculine	ils3	les	leur	eux
		Feminine	elles			elles
		Gender neutral5	iels			elleux

¹ Also used as the first person plural.

² Also used as the polite singular form.

³ Also used when a group has both men and women.

⁴ Also used as third person plural reflexive.

⁵ Colloquial, and not in popular use.

Further reading

• “ils”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• lis
• s’il

Swedish

Noun

ils

1. indefinite genitive singular of il

Anagrams

• sil