How to say that something belongs to you

How to say that something belongs to you. © N. Bourke 2006

First of all let’s revise some words we know: Une trousse Un stylo Des crayons Des gommes Feminine Masculine Plural (m) Plural (f) What do we know about these words?

Recap: So some words in French are masculine and some are feminine. When we talk about ‘a…’ we need different words for masculine things and feminine things. What are they? Un Une

Recap: Similarly, when we say ‘the…’ we need two different words. What are they? Le La

There is another category we have to think about too. Do you know what it is? Plural

Plural

What is a plural? Two ducks, three tables, four trees. There is a word for ‘the’ that we use with plurals. What is it? Les Plurals overrule the masculine / feminine rules, so no matter whether it’s masculine or feminine, we use the word ‘les’.

So we have three categories: Masculine Feminine Plural

A / some the my your his / her masculine un le mon ton son feminine une la ma ta sa plural des les mes tes ses

Let’s remind ourselves of those new words. Can you Now copy them into your books. remember the pattern? my your mon ton ma mes ta tes Which ones are plural? masculine? feminine? his / her son sa ses

Son / sa There is a very important difference between the way we use ‘his’ and ‘her’ and the way the French use ‘son’ and ‘sa’. In French, you use ‘son’ to talk about a masculine thing that belongs to someone. i. e. son stylo This can mean ‘his pen’ OR ‘her pen’. So it doesn’t matter if the person we’re talking about is male or female, we use the masculine word ‘son’ if we’re talking about a masculine thing that belongs to someone.