Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are a high-frequency A1 point on the TCF — and a classic trap, because they work the opposite way to English intuition: French looks at the object, not the owner.

Possessive adjectives table

The possessive agrees with the noun owned, not with the owner.

💡 Intuition: to pick mon/ma/mes, ask the gender and number of the noun, never the sex of the owner. 🏠 Memory aid: think of son/sa as a label stuck on the object — its shape depends on the object, not on the hand holding it.

⚠️ The one that trips everyone up: son/sa follows the object, and ma/ta/sa → mon/ton/son before a vowel

Two counter-intuitive points, together.

① son/sa/ses does NOT mean his vs her — French does not encode the owner's gender. son livre can mean his book or her book; the form follows the gender of livre (masc.), and context decides.

• Marie reads her book → Marie lit son livre.
• Paul reads his book → Paul lit son livre.

② Before a vowel or mute h, ma/ta/sa → mon/ton/son — use the masculine form for euphony, even with feminine nouns. So sa amie is always wrong.

• mon amie (not ma amie)
• ton école
• son histoire

Same logic as English a → an before vowels.

Another trap: leur (sg) vs leurs (pl) vs leur (object pronoun)

• leur maison — their house (one)
• leurs maisons — their houses (several)
• The indirect-object pronoun leur (= to them) never takes s:
  • Je leur parle. (pronoun)
  • C'est leur problème. (adj., sg)
  • Ce sont leurs problèmes. (adj., pl)

notre / votre

Single form for both genders in the singular; plural is nos / vos.

Quick recap

• Agrees with the possessed noun, not the possessor
• Before vowel/mute h: ma/ta/sa → mon/ton/son
• leur(s) inflects as an adjective; leur as an object pronoun never takes s