French Possessive Adjectives

Use French possessive adjectives to say who something belongs to.  Possessive adjectives replace articles. In English we would say:  MY, YOUR, HIS, HER, OUR and THEIR. Watch my video lesson on possessive adjectives below.


There are more possessive adjectives in French than in English.  It all goes back to gender and number, which are always important in French.

When talking about body parts we hardly ever use possessive adjectives.  
For example, if you want to say “My head hurts” you would say “J’ai mal à la tête”
If a feminine noun begins with a vowel you have to use the masculine possessive adjective before it.  

For example, even though “araignée = spider” is a feminine noun, if it is MY spider I have to say MON araignée so that it will sound pretty when spoken. 
The tricky thing about French possessives is that the gender of the noun will determine which adjective needs to be used.  

For example, “stylo” is masculine.  It’s masculine no matter if it belongs to HIM or HER.  That’s why we say SON stylo to mean HIS pen and SON stylo to mean HER pen.  
EnglishMasculine SingularFeminine SingularBefore a vowelPlural
mymonmamon
mon amie
mes
your (tu)tontaton 
ton amie
tes
his / her / itssonsason
son amie
ses
ournotrenotre notrenos
your (vous)votrevotrevotrevos
theirleurleurleurleurs

Examples

my brothermon frèremy sisterma soeur
your brotherton frèreyour sisterta soeur
his brotherson frèrehis sistersa soeur
her brotherson frèreher sistersa soeur
our brothernotre frèreour sisternotre soeur
your brothervotre frèreyour sistervotre soeur
their brotherleur frèretheir sisterleur soeur
my momma mamanmy dadmon papa
your momta mamanyour dadton papa
his momsa mamanhis dadson papa
her momsa mamanher dadson papa
our momnotre mamanour dadnotre papa
your momvotre mamanyour dadvotre papa
their momleur mamantheir dadleur papa
my grandparentsmes grands-parents
your grandparentstes grands-parents
his grandparentsses grands-parents
her grandparentsses grands-parents
our grandparentsnos grands-parents
your grandparentsvos grands-parents
their grandparentsleurs grands-parents


%d bloggers like this: