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Possessive adjectives

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Possessive Adjectives 1

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“J’habite à Marseille avec mon frère. ” – I live in Marseille with my brother. “Ma famille est très grande. ” – My family is very large.“Mes amis Paul et Sandrine.” – My friends Paul and Sandrine.

Possessive adjectives 2

Read the text again. Can you find the three words the author uses for ‘my’?

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My

Your

His / her

masc

mon

ton

son

fem

ma

ta

sa

plural

mes

tes

ses

Possessive adjectives 3

Why do you think she uses a different word each time?It’s because in French, you need a different word for ‘my’ depending on whether the noun after it is masculine or feminine, or plural.

In this case, family (famille) is feminine, brother (frère) is masculine, and friends (amis) is plural.

Now look at the following table to see which French words to use for ‘my’.

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Using some classroom vocabulary, can you fill in the gaps on the right by correctly translating the words in brackets? Remember to check the gender of each noun, and to look out for plurals (ending in –s!).

(my) _____ stylo(your) _____ ordinateur(his) _____ bics(her) _____ trousse(your) _____ crayons(her) _____ sac(his) _____ gommes(my) _____ livres(my) _____ cahier(your) _____ règle

mon

ta

tonsessatessonsesmesmon

Possessive adjectives 4

My

Your

His / her

masc

mon

ton

son

fem

ma

ta

sa

plural

mes

tes

ses

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Why do you think this is?

Possessive Adjectives 5

Ma – an exception to the rule:

If a noun is feminine but begins with a vowel, for example amie, the masculine possessive adjective, mon, is used instead of the feminine, ma:

So, “my friend Anna lives in Paris” would be “Mon amie Anna habite à Paris”, instead of “Ma amie Anna habite à Paris”.

Having one letter ‘a’ immediately before another disrupts the flow of a sentence and is therefore avoided.

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Possessive Adjectives 6

These work slightly differently. Look at this table.

But what do I do when I want to talk about more than one person’s things, like ‘our books’ or ‘their house’?

Our

Your (pl)

Their

singular

notre

votre

leur

plural

nos

vos

leurs

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Possessive Adjectives 7

1. ________ chaussures sont salles. (Your) Your shoes are dirty.2. ________ livres sont remplis d’images. (Their) Their books are full of pictures.3. ________ maison est vraiment spacieuse. (Our) Our house is really spacious.4. ________ meubles sont démodés, il faut les changer. (Our) Our furniture is old-fashioned, we should change it.5. ________ voiture est cassée. (Your) Your car is damaged.6. ________ fille est partie avec ses cousines. (Their) Their daughter left with her cousins.

Vos

Leurs

Notre

Nos

Votre

Leur

Now try this exercise. Firstly, fill in the gaps using the clues in brackets and then translate each sentence into English.

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Possessive Adjectives 8