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.

English	Masculine Singular	Feminine Singular	Before a vowel	Plural
my	mon	ma	mon mon amie	mes
your (tu)	ton	ta	ton  ton amie	tes
his / her / its	son	sa	son son amie	ses
our	notre	notre	notre	nos
your (vous)	votre	votre	votre	vos
their	leur	leur	leur	leurs

Examples

my brother	mon frère	my sister	ma soeur
your brother	ton frère	your sister	ta soeur
his brother	son frère	his sister	sa soeur
her brother	son frère	her sister	sa soeur
our brother	notre frère	our sister	notre soeur
your brother	votre frère	your sister	votre soeur
their brother	leur frère	their sister	leur soeur

my mom	ma maman	my dad	mon papa
your mom	ta maman	your dad	ton papa
his mom	sa maman	his dad	son papa
her mom	sa maman	her dad	son papa
our mom	notre maman	our dad	notre papa
your mom	votre maman	your dad	votre papa
their mom	leur maman	their dad	leur papa

my grandparents	mes grands-parents
your grandparents	tes grands-parents
his grandparents	ses grands-parents
her grandparents	ses grands-parents
our grandparents	nos grands-parents
your grandparents	vos grands-parents
their grandparents	leurs grands-parents

---

---