French Possessive Pronouns
Learn how to use the French possessive pronouns in a quick and easy way, with explanations and examples.
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Possessive Pronoun DefinitionWhat Decides Which French Possessive Pronouns to Use?French Possessive Pronouns ChartExamples of French Possessive PronounsOther ResourcesConclusionFrench and English possessive pronouns are similar in some ways but have slight differences. In this article, you will find French possessive pronouns and learn how and when to use them.
Possessive Pronoun Definition
What are possessive pronouns? In simple terms, possessive pronouns are pronouns that help to determine who an item belongs to. In English an example of this is “that is yours”, with ‘yours’ being the possessive pronoun.
English possessive pronouns include mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs. French has over twenty forms in the chart below, but the patterns are simple, so there is no need to worry.
What Decides Which French Possessive Pronouns to Use?
Gender
French possessive pronouns are either masculine or feminine, but it isn’t the owner’s gender that determines the gender of the possessive pronoun that you would use, it is the gender of the thing owned.
This is actually a very common mistake to make, but it is important that you identify whether the noun represented by the possessive pronoun is feminine or masculine. So, when talking about the TV, for example, because the TV is feminine (la télé) the pronoun you would use to show who owns the TV would be feminine, no matter the owner’s gender. In comparison the sofa bed (le canapé-lit) is masculine so the pronoun you use would be masculine.
How Many Things Are Possessed
The other factor in deciding which possessive pronoun to use is how many of the thing there are. So, while the words are different depending on whether it is mine, yours, ours and theirs, it will also change slightly depending on how many of each thing you are talking about. For example, the pronoun used to describe your cake differs from the pronoun used for your cakes.
This is where the French possessive pronouns differ from the English, as when speaking in English they don’t change because of the gender or number of the thing possessed. The only time that the pronouns will change in English is in relation to who is being spoken about.
French Possessive Pronouns Chart
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | English |
| Le mien | La mienne | Les miens | Les miennes | Mine |
| Le tien | La tienne | Les tiens | Les tiennes | Yours |
| Le sien | La sienne | Les siens | Les siennes | His/Hers/Its |
| Le nôtre | La nôtre | Les nôtres | Les nôtres | Ours |
| Le vôtre | La vôtre | Les vôtres | Les vôtres | Yours (When using Vous) |
| Le leur | La leur | Les leurs | Les leurs | Theirs |
As you can see, with the feminine singular for mine, yours and his/hers/its there is an extra ‘ne’, and all plural possessive pronouns in French have an ‘s’ added onto the end as well.
With ours, yours (when using vous) and theirs there are only two variations on the spelling depending on whether it is plural or not. The only difference with these three between masculine and feminine singular being the le or la at the beginning.
Examples of French Possessive Pronouns
- Je t’échange le mien contre le tien – (I’ll trade mine for yours)
- Ce sont les nôtres – (They’re ours)
- Le bureau est le sien – (The office is hers)
- Cette chemise est la sienne – (That shirt is his/hers)
- J’ai appelé mes amis. Allez-vous appeler les vôtres ? – (I’ve called my friends. Are you going to call yours?)
- Oui, ces trois enfants sont les nôtres – (Yes, those three children are ours)
Other Resources
Other French possessive pronoun worksheets, which teachers use, can be found on Pinterest should you have an account with the platform. You are able to print these off and complete them in your own time before checking your answers through research.
If you don’t have a Pinterest account, there are also plenty of online quizzes available should you wish to test your knowledge as part of your revision of the information that you have learnt on the topic.
Conclusion
The possessive pronouns in French are fairly easy to learn as there aren’t as many variations to them in comparison to the conjugation of different verbs in French. This is because the pronouns remain the same no matter which tense you are talking in, while verbs change depending on who you are talking about and the tense which you are using.
There are several other grammatical rules such as those for relative pronouns and the pronouns ‘en’ and ‘y’. Once you learn these rules, you will be able to use them in your speech, writing and reading without worry.
