French Grammar: Possessive Adjective

Definition: Possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns; analogous to English "my," "his," etc.) are the words used in place of articles to indicate to whom or to what something belongs. Their usage is similar to English, but there are some differences in form.

The following table shows the forms of French possessives:

ENGLISH	MASCULINE	FEMININE	BEFORE VOWEL	PLURAL
My	mon	ma	mon	mes
your *(singular)*	ton	ta	ton	tes
his, her, its	son	sa	son	ses
our	notre	notre	notre	nos
your (plural)	votre	votre	votre	vos
their	leur	leur	leur	leurs

French has many more possessives than English. For singular subjects (I, you, he/she/it), there are three forms of the possessive. The gender, number, and first letter of the noun possessed determine which form to use.

Examples in French:

	MY	YOUR	HIS, HER, ITS
masc: pen	mon stylo	ton stylo	son stylo
fem: watch	ma montre	ta montre	sa montre
vowel: friend	mon amie	ton amie	son amie
plural: brothers	mes frères	tes frères	ses frères

An important difference between French and English is that in French it is the gender of the noun that determines which form to use, not the gender of the subject. This is particularly difficult when talking about him/her/it. Son, sa, and ses can each mean his, her, or its depending on the context.

Plural subjects:

(we, you, they) have only two forms: singular and plural.

	ENGLISH	OUR	YOUR	THEIR
MASCULINE	pen	notre stylo	votre stylo	leur stylo
FEMININE	watch	notre montre	votre montre	leur montre
PLURAL	friends	nos amis	vos amis	leurs amis

Note: the possessive adjective is almost never used with body parts in French. You can't say 'my hand' or 'my hair.' Instead, the French use pronominal verbs to show possession with body parts:

Examples in French:

Je me suis cassé la jambe
I broke my leg (literally, I broke the leg of myself).

Il se lave les cheveux
He's washing his hair (literally, He washes the hair of himself).