LMF: Les adjectifs possessifs
Les adjectifs possessifs
Introduction - Do you remember possessive adjectives from French 1 and French 2? Below is a quick review.
| Possessive Adjectives | ||||
| English | Singular - Masculine | Singular - Feminine | Before vowel/silent h | Plural |
| my | mon | ma | mon | mes |
| your (tu-form) | ton | ta | ton | tes |
| his, her, its | son | sa | son | ses |
| our | notre | notre | notre | nos |
| your (vous-form) | votre | votre | votre | vos |
| their | leur | leur | leur | leurs |
Pronoun and Possessive Adjectives - Gender Notes
Recall that French does not have a specific pronoun for it because French has no neutral/neuter gender. When translating French to English, keep this in mind. If the pronoun is referring to an object, be sure to use the English pronoun it(s), regardless of the gender of the French pronoun. Also keep in mind that these possessive forms are adjectives, so the gender of the French possessive must agree with the noun it is modifying.
Example:
- Voilà un vélo .
- Translation: Here is a bike.
- Il est grand.
- Translation: It is large.
- un vélo = masculine, so French uses the masculine pronoun il. But when translating, English uses the pronoun "It" to replace bike, because a bike is an object.
- Translation: It is large.
- Sa couleur est rouge.
- Translation: Its color is red.
- Sa is still referring to the bike (replacing that particular noun), so English will use "its" as the possessive adjective.
- une couleur = feminine and singular, so the French possessive adjective must be the feminine singular form: sa.
- Translation: Its color is red.
À vous
Que faire ? - Complétez l'activité suivante pour savoir si vous comprenez les adjectifs possessifs.