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Vous vouliez un devis ; voici le nôtre.

Vous vouliez un devis ; voici le nôtre.
You wanted a quote; here is ours.
From Lesson 459:The polite imperfect (je voulais…)·French

Questions & Answers about Vous vouliez un devis ; voici le nôtre.

Why is vouliez in the imperfect tense rather than the present tense voulez?
This is the 'imparfait d'atténuation' (imperfect of politeness). While it can literally refer to a past request, using the imperfect to state a present desire softens the sentence. Saying Vous voulez un devis (You want a quote) can sound too direct or presumptuous. The imperfect makes it sound more polite, similar to saying 'I understand you were looking for a quote.'
Why does nôtre have a circumflex accent (^) here?
The circumflex distinguishes the possessive pronoun le nôtre (ours) from the possessive adjective notre (our, as in notre devis). The pronunciation changes too: the 'o' in le nôtre is a closed, longer sound, whereas the 'o' in notre is open and short.
Why is the article 'le' used before nôtre?
In French, possessive pronouns (mine, yours, ours) always require a definite article (le, la, or les). Here, it replaces the masculine singular noun le devis, so it must be le nôtre. You cannot just say voici nôtre to mean 'here is ours'.
Is the word devis plural because it ends in an 's'?
No, un devis (an estimate or quote) is a masculine singular noun that naturally ends in 's' in its base form. Because it already ends in an 's', its spelling does not change in the plural: one quote is un devis, and two quotes would be deux devis.

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