Protips: The little things you learn to pro up your French

The word personne exists both as a pronoun and a noun in French. As a noun, it means a person or someone and is synonymous with quelqu’un in most cases. As a pronoun, it means no one or nobody and is constructed as a double negative using ne.

Personne ne doit savoir la vérité – No one/nobody must know the truth (‘personne’ here is a pronoun, therefore there is no article; it stands alone.)

Et si la personne que tu aimes ne t’aime pas? – What if the person you like doesn’t like you back? (‘personne’ here is a noun, and can refer to a male or female; notice the article before the noun. It is always feminine even when referring to a male.)

The noun personne can act as a synonym of quelqu’un in some situations (though quelqu’un is somewhat more common in usage than une personne). Quelqu’un is a neutral noun, but in French there is no third gender so neutral nouns are masculine. Again, even when used to refer to a female, quelqu’un will remain invariable. Unlike une personne, quelqu’un has no plural form. To express plurality, use les gens.

Les gens qui tiennent à leurs rêves doivent surmonter des difficultés dans leur vie – [The] people who hold on to their dreams need to overcome difficulties in their lives

Personne as a pronoun can be employed on its own to mean ‘no one’ or ‘nobody’, for instance in answer to a question.

Qui est entré dans mon bureau ? | Personne – Who went into my office? | No one