Adjectifs possessifs pour propriétaires singuliers
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Grammatically speaking, French has three singular possessors because it has just three* singular grammatical persons:
| 1st person | je | I | |
| 2nd person | tu | you | |
| 3rd person | il elle on |
he she one |
In French, each of the three* grammatical possessors has three different possessive adjectives, depending on whether the possession is masculine singular, feminine singular, or plural. Therefore, there are a total of 9 French possessive adjectives for the three singular possessors:
| Singular | Plural | ||||
| Masculine | Feminine | ||||
| my | mon | ma | mes | ||
| your (tu form) | ton | ta | tes | ||
| his, her, its | son | sa | ses | ||
Par exemple…
| Je suis avec mon frère. | I’m with my brother. |
| J’écoute ma musique. | I’m listening to my music. |
| J’ai perdu mes clés. | I lost my keys. |
 Remember: The gender of the owner is irrelevant. Men and women both say mon travail (my job) and ma voiture (my car), because travail is masculine and voiture is feminine.
Euphony
When a feminine singular noun begins with a vowel or h muet, the masculine adjective is used to avoid a hiatus – learn more.
Par exemple…
| mon idée | my idea | ||
| ton histoire | your story | ||
| son auto | his/her car |
This is also the case when an adjective that comes between the possessive and the noun begins with a vowel or mute h …
Par exemple…
| mon autre idée | my other idea | ||
| ton unique histoire | your only story | ||
| son ancienne auto | his/her old car |
… even if the noun itself begins with a consonant.
Par exemple…
| mon autre projet | my other project | ||
| ton unique fille | your only daughter | ||
| son ancienne voiture | his/her old car |
Note that an adjective starting with a consonant uses the normal possessive adjective – it’s only the first letter of the word that immediately follows the possessive that dictates whether euphony is required.
Par exemple…
| ma deuxième idée | my second idea | ||
| ta bonne histoire | your good story | ||
| sa nouvelle auto | his/her new car |
* Fais gaffe !
As you can see, the third person has three distinct subjects, and in English, there’s a different possessive adjective for each of those subjects. In French, however, this is where it gets really tricky: grammatically speaking, there is only one third person owner, so all three third-person singular possessors use the same possessive adjectives. There is no distinction between his, her, and its; again, the choice of possessive adjective depends on the gender and number of the possession itself. The gender of the owner is completely irrelevant, grammatically speaking.
Par exemple…
| Je suis avec son frère. | I’m with his / her brother. |
| J’écoute sa musique. | I’m listening to his / her music. |
| J’ai perdu ses clés. | I lost his / her keys. |
If you ever do need to make the distinction, you can use the preposition à plus a stressed pronoun:
- Ã lui – "belonging to him"
- Ã elle – "belonging to her"
Par exemple…
| son frère à lui | his brother | |
| son frère à elle | her brother |
More French Possessive Adjectives
- Introduction
- Singular possessors | Plural possessors
- Singular possessions | Plural possessions
Possessive Adjective Quizzes
Quizzes on possessive adjectives vs possessive pronouns
Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to take these tests. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!
Related lessons
- Introduction to nouns and gender
- Introduction to adjectives
- More French possession
- PwLF super list of possession lessons
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