French Possessive Adjectives – Exercises and Grammar

These examples include the masculine, feminine, and plural form.

You have probably noticed that the English pronoun “my” does not change. In French, we need to change the possessive adjectives with regards to the gender of the noun.

Unfortunately, I need to tell you that there are several possessive adjectives.

I know that it can be overwhelming to see all these different forms, and it can actually be a disadvantage learning them one by one without understanding their differences.

However, there is no need to be discouraged, I will help you understand their areas of application .

Let us then divide the picture into three different categories. We will begin with the masculine version.

Masculine

We can pair these possessive adjectives with words in the masculine form. The best way to explain this is by using examples, as shown below:

• Mon – Je vais trouver mon ordinateur – I will find my computer.
• Ton – J’aime ton chat – I like your cat.
• Son – Elle aime son appartement – She likes her apartment.

What about “notre,” “votre,” and “leur”? They can be used for both the masculine and feminine form .

However, they can change in the plural form. More on this later.

Feminine

• Elle a acheté ma voiture – She bought my car.
• A-t-il rencontré ta mère? – Did he meet your mother?
• Il a oublié sa veste – He forgot his jacket.

You may have noticed that the biggest issue is knowing the gender of the word/noun.

This is something every French learner deals with, even those who have studied the language for several years .

Notre, votre, leur

There are no changes for the masculine- and feminine form when we are using “notre,”, “votre,” and “leur”.

I am going to reuse some of the earlier examples. This will show you that we can use “notre,” “votre,” and “leur” for both masculine and feminine words.

• Notre – Je vais trouver notre ordinateur – I want to find our computer.
• Votre – J’aime votre chat – I like your cat.
• Leur – Elle aime leur appartement – She likes their appartement.

• Notre – Elle a acheté notre voiture – She bought our car.
• Votre – A-t-il rencontré votre mère? – Did he meet your mother?
• Leur – Il a oublié leur veste – He forgot their jacket.

I have only changed the words in bold.

Plural 1

I’ve already told you that we can use both masculine and feminine words in the plural form.

This makes things easier since we do not have to worry about the gender of the word.

• Je veux mes pommes – I want my apples.
• As-tu trouvé tes gants? – Have you found your gloves?
• Elle parle à ses amis – She speaks to her friends.

Plural 2

You may have noticed that something is missing. We have not covered “Nos,” “vos,” and “leurs”.

And by now, you are probably a little bit confused. It will always be a bit confusing to see all these different forms for a native English speaker.

That’s why I have chosen to add many different categories to break down every part in a pedagogical way.

Let’s get back to the grammar. “Nos,” “vos,“ and “leurs” will be used when the word/noun is in plural. For instance:

• Paintings
• Cars
• Jackets

Referring to something that belongs to two or more people is another criterion. Let us look at some examples:

• Où sont nos tableaux? – Where are our paintings?
• Nos voitures sont exclusives et chères – Our cars are exclusive and expensive.
• Les enfants ont besoin de leurs vestes – The children need their jackets.

Please complete the exercises. There is another chapter after the exercises. However, that part is not crucial for understanding the basic concept.

Exercises

The importance of the noun

It is the noun that determines which pronoun we can use, a concept beginners can find difficult to grasp.

However, it is easier when we speak about things that are strictly masculine and feminine. For instance:

• A man – Un homme.
• A woman – Une femme.
• A boy – Un garcon.
• A girl – Une fille.

It becomes more difficult when we refer to things that lack this natural association. For instance, a table or a watch lacks a natural association to gender in English.

As such, it is a good idea to always learn the gender of a word or a noun. This will facilitate the learning process and make you a conversational speaker much faster.

You can motivate yourself by thinking of how difficult it would be to express yourself without knowing this important concept. 

Vowels and liaison

There is one more aspect that will influence the choice of the possessive adjective.

In French, we want to avoid repeating vowels one after the other.

This sounds very technical in theory. It is easier to understand why in practice. You can find out why by repeating the following phrases:

1. C’’est ma armoire – It is my wardrobe.
2. C’est mon armoire – It is my wardrobe.

“Armoire” can be a bit difficult to pronounce . However, phrase number 2 sounds better.

The problem is that “armoire” is a feminine noun, that is “une amoire.”

In theory, we should use number 1 according to what we have learned in this article.

The French are very strict about their vowels and how their language sounds.

This rule about the vowel will therefore override the rules we have already discussed.

Are you still not sure about what I am trying to explain? Let me give you a few more examples:

1. “École,” which means “school,” is in the feminine form. We will therefore say “une école.”
2. Let us put this in the context of possessive adjectives. We should use the feminine form of the possessive adjective if we want to refer to “une école.”
3. For instance, “C’est ma école.” This will, however, leave us with the same problem. It doesn’t sound good.
4. “C’est mon école” sounds a lot better, even if it is the masculine form of the possessive adjective.

Vowels

We can conclude that it is very important to know the vowels, as they will influence your ability to speak and write in French.

• A, E, U, O, U, Y.

Also, bear in mind that “H” will also sometimes change the pronoun based on the fact that we do not always pronounce the letter “H”.

For instance, let us look at “une histoire” and these two alternatives:

1. C’est ma histoire.
2. C’est mon histoire.

In theory, we should use number 1. However, number 2 sounds better and it helps us avoid the problem of pronouncing two vowels one after another.

In this case, the “h” in “histoire” is called an “h-muet”. This means that the letter coming after “h” will prevail as the dominant letter.

In this case, “h” is followed by an “I,” which is a vowel.

And yes, I know this all sounds very complicated .

Don’t worry about this too much if you are a beginner.