French possessive pronouns are words that indicate to whom or to what something belongs. These are equivalent to words such as mine or yours in English. They are essential grammatical elements for speaking and writing accurate French, so let’s take some time to become familiar with them.

This post will provide you with a simple but thorough explanation of the possessive pronouns in French, how to correctly use them in a sentence, along with many examples so that you can easily practice applying them. Let’s get to it!

French possessive pronouns: The fundamentals

What are possessive pronouns in French?

To put it simply, possessive pronouns take the place of nouns and allow us to indicate the owner of those nouns while avoiding repetitions. They are also often used to make comparisons between two elements. In French, we call them les pronoms possessifs. The English possessive pronouns include mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs.

Let’s look at an example to illustrate how possessive pronouns work:

• I think it’s my cat. Yes, it’s mine. – Je pense que c’est mon chat. Oui, c’est le mien.

Here, le mien (mine) is the possessive pronoun that replaces “mon chat” (“my cat”) and shows possession of the noun.

Basic rules about French possessive pronouns

When using French possessive pronouns, there are two points to always keep in mind

• They always start with a French definite article (le, la, or les)

• They agree in gender and number with the noun that is possessed

All the French possessive pronouns, with examples

Here’s the summary table of all the French possessive pronouns, with their English translation and their associated French subject pronouns:

*Please refer to our dedicated post if you need a refresher on the different forms of You in French. Also note that there’s no corresponding possessive pronoun for the French third-person singular pronoun on.

Now, let’s try to use each French possessive pronoun in context:

• I need to buy new shoes. Mine are too old. – J’ai besoin d’acheter des nouvelles chaussures. Les miennes sont trop vieilles.

• This pen, is it yours or mine? – Ce stylo, c’est le tien ou le mien ?

• Cheers! (literally “to yours!”) – À la tienne ! – À la vôtre !

• He forgot his textbooks. Can he borrow yours? – Il a oublié ses manuels. Il peut utiliser les vôtres ?

• His/her car is newer than his/hers. – Sa voiture est plus récente que la sienne.

• I can see my friends over there, but not his/hers. – Je peux voir mes amis là-bas, mais pas les siens.

• Our parents are from Brittany. Where are yours from? / Ours are from Toulouse. – Nos parents viennent de Bretagne. D’où sont les vôtres? / Les nôtres sont de Toulouse.

• Our children are in the garden and yours are in the living room. – Nos enfants sont dans le jardin et les vôtres dans le salon.

• Is this the neighbor’s dog? / Yes, it’s theirs. – C’est le chien des voisins? / Oui, c’est le leur.

Using French possessive pronouns: Points to watch out for

How to choose the right possessive pronoun

Don’t let the sheer number of French possessive pronouns intimidate you, they are not that complicated to work with once you know what to look for.

First, you have to identify the owner. For example, if the owner is I, the corresponding possessive pronoun is mine and you have the choice between le mien, la mienne, les miens, or les miennes.

To know which one to use, just take a look at the gender and number of the possessed noun. If you’re in my workshop and I am talking about “mes mèches” (“my drill bits”), I will use the plural feminine possessive pronoun les miennes to match the gender and number of the French word “mèches.”

• They’re my drill bits. They’re mine. – Ce sont mes mèches. Ce sont les miennes.

Note that the plural possessive pronouns for ours, yours, and theirs in French have only three distinct forms: singular masculine, singular feminine, and plural. This means you will use les nôtres, les vôtres, and les leurs no matter if the possessions are feminine or masculine.

• My video games are fun, but I prefer theirs. – Mes jeux-vidéo sont amusants, mais je préfère les leurs.

• I don’t like her dark dresses. Theirs are much more colorful. – Je n’aime pas ses robes sombres. Les leurs sont bien plus colorées.

Contraction of the article with the preposition à and de

In French, the definite articles le and les contract when they follow the prepositions à or de. This means that all the possessive pronouns that include le and les will change according to these contractions:

• à + le = au

• à + les = aux

• de + le = du

• de + les = des

Let’s try to apply this rule in example sentences:

• Do you like your new neighborhood? I can’t seem to get used to mine. – Tu aimes ton nouveau quartier? Je n’arrive pas à m’habituer au mien.

• I have already talked to my parents, but you haven’t talked to yours yet. – J’ai déjà parlé à mes parents, mais tu n’as pas encore parlé aux tiens.

• If you forgot your shampoo, she can give you some of hers. – Si tu as oublié ton shampoing, elle peut te donner un peu du sien.

• Do you remember your very first vacation? I don’t really remember mine. – Tu te rappelles de tes toutes premières vacances? Je ne me rappelle pas vraiment des miennes.

Possessive Pronouns vs Possessive Adjectives

Those grammatical elements are both used to express ownership and can be easily confused, so let’s see exactly how to differentiate them.

Possessive adjectives always need to be followed by the possessed noun they are referring to. Possessive pronouns replace this ensemble to avoid repetition.

In other words, we can either have [possessive adjective + noun] or we can replace that pair with a [possessive pronoun]. We cannot have a possessive adjective on its own.

For example, you can say “c’est mon chat” (it’s my cat) or “c’est le mien” (it’s mine), but you can’t say “c’est mon” (it’s my).

For a clear overview, here’s a table of all the possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives in English and French:

Note that in English, most of the possessive pronouns are quite close to their associated possessive adjectives, with just an “s” at the end. Most of the possessive pronouns in French, on the other hand, are much different from their possessive adjective counterparts. The closest ones are still differentiated by the accent circonflexe, with unaccented “notre” meaning “our” and unaccented “votre” meaning “your.”

In addition to possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns, there are several other ways to express ownership in French such as the verb avoir (“to have” in English) and the prepositions à and de which are equivalent to the English possessive ’s.

Conclusion

In this post, we went over everything you need to know when working with French possessive pronouns.

We first explained that possessive pronouns like le mien (mine) or la tienne (yours) are words used to express ownership, that they are always preceded by a definite article (le, la, or les), and that they must agree in number and gender with the possessed noun they refer to.

We then saw how to choose the correct possessive pronoun in different sentences, giving plenty of examples to show you how each one is used in context. We also talked about how the definite articles le and les contract into au, aux, du, or des when they are preceded by the prepositions à and de.

Finally, we gave a quick comparison of French possessive pronouns vs possessive adjectives so you can keep the two sets distinct from each other.

We hope this post has helped you gain confidence in your French language abilities, and that you are now ready to use the French possessive pronouns in daily conversations!