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FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nous.

the plural personal pronoun in the first person:

4 characters1 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

pron/nu//nu.z‿/
  1. the plural personal pronoun in the first person: we

    first-person · plural · pronoun · subjective
  2. the plural personal pronoun in the first person: us, to us

    first-person · plural
  3. we (as the royal we)

    first-person · historical · plural
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French nous, from Old French nous, nos, from Latin nōs, from Proto-Italic *nōs. In several dialects of French, je may be used instead of nous (j'allons instead of nous allons, je voyons instead of nous voyons etc.), this use was perceived as peasant-like and thus often mocked since the 15th century (for example by Molière). However this use survived and spread in various regions of the so-called domaine d'oïl (linguistic area starting above Auvergne where the oïl varieties of Romance developed from the 4th or 5th century). The regions of France where this use of je (from Latin ego "I") instead of nous, nos (from Latin nos, "we") was recorded are Normandy, Romance-speaking Brittany, Poitou and Anjou, Champagne, Ardennes, Bourgogne and Franche-Comté, Dauphiné, Berry, Touraine, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine. See cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin je and nous, Bourbonnais-Berrichon je and nous, Bourguignon i and nous, Champenois ju and nous, Franc-Comtois i and nôs, Gallo je and nouz, Lorrain nos, Norman je and nos, Orléanais je and nous, Picard nos, Poitevin-Saintongeais i/jhe and nous, Franco-Provençal nos, Occitan nosautres (Provençal nousautes), Catalan nosaltres, Corsican noi.

noun/nu//nu.z‿/
  1. the nous, (divine) reason in philosophy

    invariable · masculine
Where this word comes from

From Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or νόος (nóos, “mind”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.