KS3 · French · Year 8
A school exchange: formal 'you' and informal plural 'vous'
School life: -IR verbs in the present, uses of 'vous' and 'on'
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can use the pronoun 'vous' to talk to one person in a formal situation.
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A school exchange: formal 'you' and informal plural 'vous': slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can use the pronoun 'vous' to talk to one person in a formal situation.
Key learning points
- The SSC [oy] sounds like [oi] + 'yih', like the [oy] in 'envoyer', which means 'to send'.
- The pronoun 'vous' means you (pl), but it can also mean you (sing) when you talk to one person in a formal situation.
- This could be an older person, someone in a position of responsibility or an adult you don't know well.
- We use 'tu' for you (sing) in informal situations, such as when we talk to friends, family and children.
- There are two ways of saying please in French: 's'il te plait' (informal) and 's'il vous plait' (formal).
Words to know
- [oy]
- sound-symbol correspondence like the [oy] in 'envoyer', which means 'to send'
- tu
- you (singular informal)
- vous
- you (plural, or singular formal)
Common mistakes
There is only one way to say please to a person in French: 's'il vous plait'.
There are two ways to say please in French: 'sil vous plait' for someone you don't know very well or someone in a position of responsibility like your teacher. But for friends and family you use 's'il te plait'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- There are some famous and beautiful landmarks in Nice mentioned in this lesson like the Baie des Anges and the Promenade des Anglais. This may be something you wish to explore in more detail with your students.