Pronoms possessifs
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French possessive pronouns are used in place of nouns to indicate to whom or to what those nouns belong.
Par exemple…
| Où est le tien ? | Where is yours? |
| J’ai perdu les miennes. | I lost mine. |
Characteristics of French possessive pronouns
- Start with a definite article
- Replace a possessive adjective + noun
- Must agree with the possessed noun in number and gender
French has 21 possessive pronouns
In French, there are different forms of possessive adjectives for each grammatical person depending on whether the possessed noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
| Singular | Plural | ||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | ||
| mine | le mien | la mienne | les miens | les miennes | |
| yours (tu) | le tien | la tienne | les tiens | les tiennes | |
| his, hers, its | le sien | la sienne | les siens | les siennes | |
| ours | le nôtre | la nôtre | les nôtres | les nôtres | |
| yours (vous) | le vôtre | la vôtre | les vôtres | les vôtres | |
| theirs | le leur | la leur | les leurs | les leurs |
Note that the singular pronouns have four forms:
- Masculine singular: le mien, le tien, le sien
- Feminine singular: la mienne, la tienne, la sienne
- Masculine plural: les miens, les tiens, les siens
- Feminine plural: les miennes, les tiennes, les siennes
While the plural possessive pronouns have just three:
- Masculine singular: le nôtre, le vôtre, le leur
- Feminine singular: la nôtre, la vôtre, la leur
- Plural: les nôtres, les vôtres, les leurs
Fais gaffe !
The gender of the French possessive pronoun must agree with the gender of the noun possessed, not that of the possessor. Men and women both say le mien in reference to travail, and la mienne when talking about their voiture, because travail is masculine and voiture is feminine. This is particularly tricky for the third person singular, where English uses gender differently: we say "his" and "hers," but in French, both of those must be translated by la sienne if talking about, say, une voiture. The gender of the owner is completely irrelevant, grammatically speaking.
| His | Hers | |
| le travail | le sien | le sien |
| la voiture | la sienne | la sienne |
| les livres | les siens | les siens |
| les pommes | les siennes | les siennes |
Remember that when the prepositions à and de precede the definite articles le and les, they must contract.
Par exemple…
| Mon père n’est pas là, donc il faut téléphoner au tien. | My dad isn’t home, so we have to call yours. | |
| J’aime bien cette idée, mais que pensez-vous des leurs ? | I really like this idea, but what do you think about theirs? |
French Possessive Quizzes
Test yourself on French possessive pronouns vs possessive adjectives with these fill-in-the-blank exercises:
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
- À la vôtre !
- Le tien vs le vôtre
- Contractions
- Definite articles
- More French possession
- The Pronommeur
- PwLF super list of possession lessons
- Introduction to nouns and gender
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