French Possessive Pronouns
Pronoms possessifs
Possessive pronouns are the words which replace nouns modified by possessive adjectives. In French there are different forms of possessive pronouns depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Masc | Fem | |
| mine | le mien | la mienne | les miens | les miennes |
| yours (sing, fam) | 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 (plur, form) | le vôtre | la vôtre | les vôtres | les vôtres |
| theirs | le leur | la leur | les leurs | les leurs |
The important things to remember are that the possessive pronoun must match the noun
being replaced in number and gender,
and that the appropriate definite
article must be used. Other than that, French and English possessive
pronouns are very similar.
| Voici mon frère. Enchanté. Le mien n'est pas encore arrivé. |
Here's my brother. Nice to meet you. Mine hasn't arrived yet. |
| Je déteste ma voiture ; la tienne est beaucoup plus jolie. | I hate my car; yours is much prettier. |
| Mes parents sont en France. Où habitent les vôtres ? | My parents are in France. Where do yours live? |
| Cette tasse... c'est la tienne ou la mienne ? | This cup... is it yours or mine? |
When the possessive pronoun is preceded by à or
de, the preposition contracts
with the definite
article:
| Tu parles à ton frère ; je vais parler au mien. | You talk to your brother; I'm going to talk to mine. |
| Ils sont fiers de leurs enfants et nous sommes fiers des nôtres. | They are proud of their kids and we are proud of ours. |
| Test on possessive pronouns |
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