Possessive adjectives - mon, ma, mes

A possessive adjective is a type of word like my, your and his. It gives information about who or what possesses something.

Take, for example, the phrase my book. Here the possessive adjective my indicates that the book belongs to me, and not to my sister (in which case it would be her book) or to my cousins (their book).

Let’s look at how to say the French word for my. In French there are three forms for this:

mon - before masculine words

ma - before feminine words

mes - before plural words

As with the definite articles le and la, possessive adjectives have to agree with the noun they are describing. This means that if the thing that is possessed is masculine you use the masculine form, which is mon:

mon chat

my cat

mon livre

my book

mon frère

my brother

Similarly if the thing that is possessed is feminine you use the feminine form, which is ma:

ma soeur

my sister

ma jambe

my leg

ma chemise

my shirt

And if the thing that is possessed is plural you use the plural form, which is mes:

mes parents

my parents

mes cheveux

my hair

mes chaussettes

my socks