Elles avancent

Of course the Brits. accuse the French of many things. Lazy, xenophobic, bad cooks, anti Semitic, antifeminists, what have you. Most of it is utter rubbish. But one thing that has always perturbed me is the use of the third person plural pronouns. ‘ Ils’, ‘Elles’, the equivalent of ‘they’ but with the grammatical gender. The rule is that you use the feminine ‘elles’ only if all the subjects are feminine. So if you have a bunch of tables (la table) and chairs (la chaise) you say ‘elles’ when talking of them all. Elles sont nombreuses. But if there was just one broom in there (le balai), then it all becomes masculine and Ils sont nombreux.

Talking of inanimate things it’s not too important. But what about a WI meeting. There we have all these female pillars of society, 5000 of them, discussing all manner of important subjects Elles discutent intelligement n’est ce pas?. Hey presto a male vicar joins them and helps them with the discussion and it all becomes 5001, ils discutent intelligement n’est ce pas? Of course the purists of the language say it is just grammatical rules and it is not sexist at all. But nevertheless in this day and age it really doesn’t seem acceptable.

So you’ll be glad to hear that since 2006 l’acadamie francaise has changed the rule and it is the majority which defines the third person pronoun. Now that’s better isn’t it ladies?