Today we’ll look at the advanced C1/C2 pronoun autrui, which translates to others and other people.
autrui
others, other people
![FrenchLearner word of the day: Autrui (pronoun) others, other people.](https://www.frenchlearner.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/autrui.jpg)
Word origin
The Modern French word autrui is related autre (other) and comes from altĕr (the other) in Latin.
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses the impersonal expression il faut, which can transalte to “have to” and “must”. La vie privée, literally “the private life”, means privacy.
Il faut respecter la vie privée d’autrui.
You have to respect the privacy of others.
This next sentence is French for “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, the Golden Rule from the bible (Mathew 7:12). Fasse is the third-person singular of faire (to make, to do) in the subjunctive mood. Ce que is an indefinite relative pronoun meaning “what”.
Ne fais pas à autrui ce que tu ne voudrais pas qu’on te fasse.
Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want others to do to you.