Possessive Adjectives (or Possessives Determiners) in French

In both French and English, possessive adjectives (now also called Possessives Determiners) show belonging or ownership. They can also indicate a relationship between people.

Because these are adjectives they must agree with the nouns they modify in terms of number and gender.

Here are the possessive adjectives:



Be careful: You select the correct possessive adjective based on who owns the item (one or various persons), but the possessive adjective changes to agree with the item. This means that you would say "his dog" and "her dog" in the same way: son chien.

Here are some examples:

C'est ma mère. [She is my mother.]
C'est mon père. [He is my father.]
C'est notre père. [He is our father.]
C'est notre mère. [She is our mother.]
Ce sont nos enfants. [They are our children.]
Ce sont nos cousines. [They are our {female} cousins.]

Exception: With a singular and feminine beginning with a vowel noun, you have to use the possessive adjective that is singular masculine!

Example:

Mon amie (My friend (girl))

Notice that son, sa and ses can mean either "his", "her", "its". This is sometimes confusing, so it is also possible to use a prepositional phrase to make it more clear.

Examples:

J'aime sa voiture. [I like his/her car.]
J'aime sa voiture à lui. [I like his car.]
J'aime sa voiture à elle. [I like her car.]