Possessive Adjectives in French

Overview

Possessive adjectives are the small but essential words that show ownership or belonging — words like "my," "your," and "their." In French, these are called adjectifs possessifs, and they work quite differently from English because they must agree with the noun they describe, not with the person who owns it.

At the A1 level, mastering possessive adjectives is one of the first steps toward building natural-sounding French sentences. The key difference from English is that French possessive adjectives change based on the gender and number of the thing being possessed. So "my book" is mon livre (masculine), but "my car" is ma voiture (feminine).

There is also an important exception you will encounter right away: before feminine nouns that start with a vowel or silent h, you use the masculine form for smooth pronunciation. So "my friend" (feminine) becomes mon amie, not ma amie.

How It Works

Person	Masculine Singular	Feminine Singular	Plural (both genders)
my	mon	ma	mes
your (tu)	ton	ta	tes
his/her/its	son	sa	ses
our	notre	notre	nos
your (vous)	votre	votre	vos
their	leur	leur	leurs

Key rules:

• The possessive adjective agrees with the possessed noun, not the possessor. Son livre can mean "his book" or "her book" — the gender of the owner does not matter.
• Before a feminine noun starting with a vowel or silent h, use mon/ton/son instead of ma/ta/sa: mon amie (my female friend), ton école (your school).
• Notre/votre have the same form for masculine and feminine singular; only the plural changes to nos/vos.
• Leur does not change for gender, only for number: leur maison (their house), leurs maisons (their houses).

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
Mon frère est médecin.	My brother is a doctor.	Masculine singular
Ma mère est professeure.	My mother is a teacher.	Feminine singular
Mes parents habitent à Lyon.	My parents live in Lyon.	Plural
Ton sac est sur la chaise.	Your bag is on the chair.	Informal "your"
Son amie est très gentille.	His/Her friend is very nice.	mon/ton/son before feminine vowel
Notre appartement est petit.	Our apartment is small.	Same form for m/f singular
Nos voisins sont sympas.	Our neighbors are nice.	Plural form
Votre question est importante.	Your question is important.	Formal or plural "your"
Leur fils a cinq ans.	Their son is five years old.	Singular possession
Leurs enfants jouent dehors.	Their children play outside.	Plural possession
C'est ta voiture ou sa voiture?	Is it your car or his/her car?	Showing contrast
J'adore son accent.	I love his/her accent.	Ambiguous owner gender

Common Mistakes

Using the owner's gender instead of the noun's gender

• Wrong: Sa livre (thinking "her book" needs a feminine adjective because the owner is female)
• Right: Son livre
• Why: The possessive adjective matches the gender of livre (masculine), not the gender of the person who owns it.

Forgetting the vowel rule with feminine nouns

• Wrong: Ma amie est arrivée.
• Right: Mon amie est arrivée.
• Why: Before a feminine noun starting with a vowel, use mon/ton/son to avoid an awkward vowel clash.

Confusing leur and leurs

• Wrong: Leurs maison est grande.
• Right: Leur maison est grande.
• Why: Leur (no -s) is used before a singular noun; leurs (with -s) is used before a plural noun.

Adding an article alongside the possessive

• Wrong: La ma voiture
• Right: Ma voiture
• Why: In French, you never combine a definite article with a possessive adjective. It is one or the other.

Practice Tips

1. Pick five objects around you and describe them using all the possessive forms: mon stylo, ton stylo, son stylo, notre stylo, votre stylo, leur stylo. Then switch to a feminine noun and repeat.
2. When reading French, pay attention to sentences with son/sa/ses and try to figure out whether the owner is male or female from context — this trains you to think about how French handles possession differently from English.
3. Practice the vowel exception by listing feminine nouns that start with vowels (amie, école, histoire, orange) and using them with mon/ton/son.

Related Concepts

• Definite Articles — the parent concept that covers le, la, les