Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers.

The people in the village easily help foreigners.

Breakdown of Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers.

• du: of
• aider: to help
• facilement: easily
• le village: the village
• les gens: the people
• l'étranger: the foreigner

Questions & Answers about Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers.

Why is it aident and not aide?

Because the subject les gens is plural.

In French, verbs must agree in number (singular/plural) with the subject:

• il aide = he helps / it helps (singular)
• ils aident = they help (plural)

Here, les gens du village = they (the people of the village), so you need the 3rd person plural form: ils aident → written aident.

Note: aide and aident are pronounced the same: /ɛd/. The -nt at the end of aident is silent.

Is gens singular or plural? How is it treated grammatically?

Gens is grammatically plural.

• You almost always see it with a plural article or determiner: les gens, ces gens, beaucoup de gens.
• It takes plural verb forms and plural adjectives:
  
  • Les gens sont gentils. (The people are kind.)

Gender-wise, gens behaves in a slightly irregular way (sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine depending on the adjectives around it), but at your level it’s enough to remember:

• Use plural verbs with gens.
• Use it as a plural noun meaning people.

What’s the difference between les gens and les personnes or le peuple?

All three can translate as people, but they’re used differently:

• les gens

  • General, informal: people in a loose sense.
  • Les gens du village = the people of the village (everyday expression).

• les personnes

  • More concrete / countable individuals, often a bit more formal or specific:
    
    • Il y avait dix personnes. = There were ten people.
    • Sounds odd here: Les personnes du village is grammatical but not the natural choice for “the people of the village”.

• le peuple

  • A more collective or political idea of “the people” as a whole group or nation:
    
    • le peuple français = the French people.
    • Le peuple du village would sound unusual or heavy unless you’re making a rhetorical or political point.

So in this sentence, les gens du village is the most natural way to say “the people of the village.”

Why is it du village and not de le village?

Du is just the contracted form of de + le.

• de = of / from
• le = the (masculine singular)
• de + le → du

So:

• les gens du village literally = the people of the village.

You never say de le village in standard French; you must contract to du village.

Why du village and not just de village or des villageois?

Each option has a slightly different nuance:

• les gens du village

  • “the people of the village” (very natural, neutral).

• les gens de village

  • Sounds wrong here. De village without an article would suggest “village people” as an abstract category, but French doesn’t normally use it that way.

• les villageois

  • Means “the villagers” as a specific word; it’s also correct:
    
    • Les villageois aident facilement les étrangers.
  • Slightly more literary / descriptive, but perfectly normal.

So les gens du village is a common, everyday way to say “the people of the village.”

Why is there no preposition after aident? In English we might think “help to the foreigners.”

In French, aider normally takes a direct object, with no preposition:

• aider quelqu’un = to help someone
• Ils aident les étrangers. = They help foreigners.

Compare:

• English: “listen to someone” → French: écouter quelqu’un (direct object)
• English: “help someone” → French: aider quelqu’un (direct object)

You would not say aider à quelqu’un in this meaning.
(Aider à + infinitive is possible: aider à comprendre = to help to understand.)

What exactly does facilement mean here? Is it “easily” or “willingly”?

Literally, facilement means easily, “without difficulty.”

In context, Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers can suggest either:

1. They help them without difficulty (it’s not hard for them to do it), and
2. They help them readily / readily enough, i.e. they don’t resist much, they are not reluctant.

If you wanted to insist more on willingness, you might say:

• Les gens du village aident volontiers les étrangers.
  (The people of the village gladly / willingly help foreigners.)

But facilement is fine and natural for “they help them quite easily / readily.”

Why is facilement placed after the verb aident? Could it go somewhere else?

The default position for many adverbs that describe how an action is done is after the conjugated verb:

• Ils parlent lentement. = They speak slowly.
• Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers.

You can technically move facilement, but it changes the style or emphasis:

• Les gens du village aident les étrangers facilement.
  Possible, still correct, but often feels a bit heavier; the most natural spot is right after aident in this sentence.
• Les gens du village, facilement, aident les étrangers.
  Very unusual, and sounds artificial.

So the version you have is the standard, natural word order.

Why les étrangers and not des étrangers?

The article changes the meaning slightly:

• les étrangers (definite article)
  → “foreigners” as a general group / category, or “the foreigners” that we have in mind in this context.

  • Suggests a general habit: they typically help foreigners.

• des étrangers (indefinite plural)
  → “some foreigners” (an unspecified number).

  • Les gens du village aident des étrangers. = The people of the village help (some) foreigners.
  • This sounds more like specific incidents rather than a general tendency.

In your sentence, les étrangers expresses a general, habitual behavior: “(they) readily help foreigners.”

Does étrangers mean “foreigners” or “strangers”?

In French, un étranger / une étrangère can mean:

1. Foreigner – someone from another country (most common modern use).
2. Stranger – someone unknown, not part of the local community (more contextual / older style, but still possible).

In this sentence, les étrangers in the context of a village will usually be understood as “outsiders” coming from elsewhere, often foreigners or just people not from the village. English could be:

• “The people of the village readily help foreigners.”
• or “The people of the village readily help strangers.”

The exact nuance would depend on the larger context.

What is the singular and feminine form of étrangers?

The base adjective/noun is:

• Masculine singular: étranger
  
  • un étranger = a foreign man / a foreigner (male)
• Feminine singular: étrangère
  
  • une étrangère = a foreign woman / a foreigner (female)
• Masculine plural: étrangers
  
  • les étrangers
• Feminine plural: étrangères
  
  • les étrangères

In your sentence, les étrangers is masculine plural, but it can refer to a mixed group (men and women), as is usual in French.

How are aide, aides, and aident pronounced? Are they different?

They are all pronounced the same: /ɛd/ (like “ed” in English “bed” but shorter).

• il aide (he helps) → /il ɛd/
• ils aident (they help) → /il‿ɛd/ (liaison before a vowel, but aident is still /ɛd/)
• j’aide, tu aides are also pronounced /ʒɛd/, /tɥɛd/ respectively (the ending -e, -es, -ent is silent).

So you must rely on context and spelling to know whether it’s aide, aides, or aident, but the spoken form is the same.

Could I replace Les gens du village with a pronoun later in a text?

Yes. Once the subject is clear from previous context, you would normally replace Les gens du village with ils:

• First mention:
  
  • Les gens du village aident facilement les étrangers.
• Later:
  
  • Ils sont très accueillants. = They are very welcoming.

This is exactly like English: once you’ve mentioned “the people of the village,” you switch to “they.”