Ils ouvrent leurs fenêtres.

the window

Breakdown of Ils ouvrent leurs fenêtres.

• ils: they
• ouvrir: to open
• leurs: their

Questions & Answers about Ils ouvrent leurs fenêtres.

What does the subject Ils represent in this sentence?

Ils is the French subject pronoun that means “they.” It refers to a group of people (or things) that are performing the action, and it’s used regardless of whether the group is all male or mixed gender.

How is the verb ouvrir conjugated here, and why does it appear as ouvrent?

The verb ouvrir (meaning “to open”) is conjugated in the third person plural present tense as ouvrent. In French, verbs must agree with their subjects. Since the subject ils is plural, the verb takes the -ent ending in the present tense.

What does the phrase leurs fenêtres mean, and why is the possessive adjective leurs plural?

Leurs fenêtres translates to “their windows” in English. The possessive adjective leurs is in its plural form to match the plural noun fenêtres. This shows that the windows belong to the group mentioned in the sentence. Even if each person owns one window, when referring to multiple people, French uses the plural form to indicate that each member has his or her own window(s).

How does the structure of Ils ouvrent leurs fenêtres compare to the typical English sentence structure?

The sentence follows a subject-verb-object order, which is similar to English. Ils (subject) comes first, followed by ouvrent (verb), and then leurs fenêtres (object). This similarity makes it easier for native English speakers to grasp basic French sentence construction.

If the group were opening one shared window instead of multiple windows, how would the sentence change?

If the intent were to express that the group is opening a single shared window, the sentence would use the singular form: Ils ouvrent leur fenêtre. Here, leur (singular possessive) is used with fenêtre (singular noun) to indicate that one window belongs to the group collectively.