ils

See also: ILS and ILs

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English International Sign.

Symbol

ils

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for International Sign.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of International Sign terms

Franco-Provençal

Etymology

Plural formed from il.

Pronoun

ils m pl (postpositive -ils) (ORB, broad)

1. they (third-person plural masculine nominative)

See also

Franco-Provençal personal pronouns

			nominative	accusative	dative	tonic1	possessive2
singular	1st person		jo	mè			min
	2nd person		te	tè			tin
	3rd person	masculine	il	lo / le	lui		sin
		feminine	el	la	lyé
		neuter	o		y	—
		reflexive	—	sè
plural	1st person		nos				noutro
	2nd person		vos				voutro
	3rd person	masculine	ils	los / les	lor		lor
		feminine	els	les	lor / lyés
		reflexive	—	sè

¹ Disjunctive or object of a preposition.   ² Generally preceded by a definite article.

References

• ils in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• ils in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

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):

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France):

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• Audio (France (Grenoble)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Hérault)):

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• Audio (France (Saint-Étienne)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Massy)):

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• 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)	locative (at)	genitive (of)	disjunctive (tonic)1	emphatic reflexive	relative	proximal	distal
singular	first	—	je, j’	me, m’		—	—	moi	moi-même	—
	second	—	tu	te, t’		—	—	toi	toi-même	—
	third	masculine	il2	le, l’	lui	y	en	lui	lui-même	celui	celui-ci	celui-là
		feminine	elle	la, l’				elle	elle-même	celle	celle-ci	celle-là
		indeterminate	on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, ça	—	—	—	—	—	—	ce	ceci	cela, ça
		reflexive	—	se, s’5		—	—	soi	soi-même	—
plural	first	—	nous	nous		—	—	nous	nous-mêmes	—
	second6	—	vous	vous		—	—	vous	vous-mêmes, vous-même6	—
	third	masculine	ils7	les	leur	y	en	eux7	eux-mêmes7	ceux	ceux-ci	ceux-là
		feminine	elles					elles	elles-mêmes	celles	celles-ci	celles-là

¹ The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d’, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
² Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
³ On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
⁴ The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
⁵ The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
⁶ Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
⁷ Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

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

Tashelhit

Etymology

Inherited from Medieval Tashelhit ايلس (iles, “tongue, language”), from Proto-Berber *iləs (“tongue, language”), metathesized from earlier *lĭs, ultimately from Proto-Afroasiatic *lis- (“tongue, language”).

Cognate with Tuareg ílǝs (“tongue”), Awjila ílĕs (“tongue”), Ghadames élǝs (“tongue”), Kabyle iles (“tongue, language”), Tarifit iřes (“tongue”), Zenaga ətʸši (“language”), Egyptian ns (“tongue”), Proto-Semitic *lišān- (“tongue, language”), and Proto-Chadic *lis- (whence Hausa harshe).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ils/

• Audio (Agadir):

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Noun

ils m (construct state yils, plural alsiwn, Tifinagh spelling ⵉⵍⵙ, Arabic spelling ايلس)

1. tongue (organ)

   آر يتژّل يلس نّس. ― ar ittẓẓl ils nns. ― he sticks out his tongue.

2. (metonymic) language

   ايلس يشلحيين. ― ils išlḥiyn. ― the Shilha language.

Inflection

Inflection of ils

	singular	plural
free state	ils	alsiwn, ilsawn
annexed state	yils	walsiwn

See also

• awal (“speech”)
• imi (“mouth”)
• mḍi (“to taste”)
• tanilst (“linguistics”)
• tantala (“dialect,jargon”)
• udm (“face”)

References

• Stroomer, Harry (2025), Dictionnaire berbère tachelḥiyt-français — Tome 2 f—l (Handbook of Oriental Studies – Handbuch der Orientalistik; 188/2) (in French), Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 1095b