3.5 Possessive Adjectives
As demonstrated in the previous exercise, in French you can indicate possession by using the preposition de:
Le livre de Marie. / Marie’s book
Les cousins de Joseph. / Joseph’s cousins
You can also indicate possession by using a possessive adjective, the equivalent of “my,” “her,” “our,” etc. Possessive adjectives are used before the noun and must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Thus , if the noun is feminine, the possessive article must be feminine. For example, the feminine noun famille requires a feminine form.
Mon sac est bleu. / My purse is blue.
Ta mère s’appelle Renée. / Your mother is named Renée.
Leurs enfants sont grands. / Their children are big.
| MASCULINE SINGULAR | FEMININE SINGULAR | PLURAL | ENGLISH |
|---|---|---|---|
| mon | ma | mes | my |
| ton | ta | tes | your (familiar) |
| son | sa | ses | his or her or its |
| notre | notre | nos | our |
| votre | votre | vos | your (formal or plural) |
| leur | leur | leurs | their |
Note that the possessive adjective sa has three potential translations in English: his, her, or its. To determine which meaning is intended, you must look at the context.
Exercice 7 : Les Adjectifs Possessifs
Select the correct form of the possessive adjective. Don’t forget to make sure that the possessive adjective corresponds to the noun in gender and number.
mon, ma, mes
- mon/ma/mes père
- mon/ma/mes mère
- mon/ma/mes amies
- mon/ma/mes amis
ton, ta, tes
- ton/ta/tes parents
- ton/ta/tes amie
- ton/ta/tes frère
- ton/ta/tes soeurs
son, sa, ses
- son/sa/ses devoirs
- son/sa/ses professeur
- son/sa/ses amies
- son/sa/ses amis
notre, nos
- notre/nos livres
- notre/nos fille
- notre/nos examen
- notre/nos profs
votre, vos
- votre/vos cousins
- votre/vos copines
- votre/vos tante
- votre/vos parents
leur, leurs
- leur/leurs copains
- leur/leurs camarade
- leur/leurs mère
- leur/leurs amis
Exercice 8 : Mes choses
In this exercise, each person has his or her own possessions. Complete the sentence with the correct possessive adjective.
Fill in the Blanks
- Jules a [blank 1 – possessive adjective] ordinateur.
- Marie et Michèle ont [blank 2 – possessive adjective] stylo.
- Le professeur a [blank 3 – possessive adjective] craie.
- Nous avons [blank 4 – possessive adjective] radio.
- Est-ce que tu as [blank 5 – possessive adjective] devoirs?
- Vous avez [blank 6 – possessive adjective] sac.
- Christophe et moi avons [blank 7 – possessive adjective] voitures.
- J’ai [blank 8 – possessive adjective] livre.
- Marie a [blank 9 – possessive adjective] dictionnaire.
- Vous avez [blank 10 – possessive adjective] téléphone?
This section includes content derived from Francais Interactif, originally released under CC-BY, Liberté, originally released under CC BY-NC-SA, and Tex’s French Grammar, originally released under CC BY 3.0.
