Possessive pronouns

• 1 Definition • 2 Use • 3 Other structures

1 Definition

Possessive pronouns are pronouns which are used to indicate possession:

On a tous les deux une voiture de sport: la mienne est italienne tandis que la sienne est allemande

We both have sports cars: mine is Italian whilst his / hers is German

2 Use

2.1 General

As with possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns must agree in gender gender and in number with the noun to which they refer. Note that they are always used with the definite article le, la or les and that there is no hyphen.

Table 43.2.1a: Possessive pronouns
	masc sing	fem sing	masc pl	fem pl
mine	le mien	la mienne	les miens	les miennes
yours	le tien	la tienne	les tiens	les tiennes
his/hers	le sien	la sienne	les siens	les siennes
ours	le nôtre	la nôtre	les nôtres	les nôtres
yours	le vôtre	la vôtre	les vôtres	les vôtres
theirs	le leur	la leur	les leurs	les leurs

Je peux emprunter ton sèche-cheveux? Le mien est cassé.

Could I borrow your hairdrier? Mine is broken.

Ta voiture est plus économique que la sienne

Your car is cheaper to run than his / hers

C'est son problème, non le nôtre

It's his / her problem, not ours

More examples

Multichoice test

Type-in test

Note

Note also that le nôtre / le vôtre have a circumflex accent, unlike the possessive adjectives notre / votre . This creates a difference in pronunciation, changing the vowel sound from one similar to that in the English word got to that in goat.