French possessives

French possessives

Possessives Match What is Owned

In English, possessive adjectives (e.g. "his") match the owner. However, in French, they match the thing being owned.

Consider the example of "her lion". The French translation is son lion, because lion is masculine and both the lion and the woman are singular. Note that if we hear just son lion, we can't tell if the lion is owned by a man or woman. It's ambiguous without more context. If two people own a lion, then it is leur lion.

Possessives have different forms that agree with four things: the number of owners, the number of things owned, the gender of the thing owned, and the grammatical person of the owner (e.g. "his" versus "my").

For one owner, the possessive adjectives are:

Person English Masculine Singular Feminine Singular Plural
1st my mon ma mes
2nd your (singular) ton ta tes
3rd his/her/its son sa ses
For multiple owners, genders don't matter:

Person English Singular Owned Plural Owned
1st our notre nos
2nd your (plural) votre vos
3rd their leur leurs
The plural second-person possessive adjectives, votre and vos, should be used when addressing someone formally with vous.

Examples:

Owner Singular Owned Plural Owned
My Mon ami — My friend Mes tigres — My tigers
Your Ton abeille — Your bee Tes lions — Your lions
His/Her Son oiseau — His/her bird Ses chiens — His/her dogs
Our Notre bière — Our beer Nos pommes — Our apples
Your Votre sel — Your salt Vos citrons — Your lemons
Their Leur fromage — Their cheese Leurs fromages — Their cheeses
Euphony in Possessives

For the sake of euphony, all singular feminine possessives switch to their masculine forms when followed by a vowel sound.

Person Masculine Feminine Feminine + Vowel Sound
1st mon chat ma robe mon eau
2nd ton chat ta robe ton eau
3rd son chat sa robe son eau
Femme and Fille

Femme can mean "woman" or "wife" and fille can mean "girl" or "daughter" depending on the context. For example, when femme and fille are preceded by a possessive adjective, then they translate to "wife" and "daughter", respectively.

Une fille et une femme sont dans le restaurant — A girl and a woman are in the restaurant. (Not: "A daughter and a wife are in the restaurant.")
Ma fille — My daughter. (Not: "My girl".)
Ta femme — Your wife. (Not: "Your woman"