Possessives — mon ma mes

In one line

son means both "his" and "her" — because it agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner.

The forms on this page

The table

The last three rows have no gender — notre, votre, leur are the same for masculine and feminine and change only in the plural.

The rule that is the opposite of English

English possessives look at the owner:

French possessives look at the thing owned:

So sa mère means "his mother" and "her mother" and there is no way to tell from the phrase itself. If it genuinely matters, French adds it: sa mère à lui (his mother).

This is the mistake English speakers make most often and go on making longest, because the instinct fires before you have finished the noun. The fix is to change the order in which you decide. Do not ask "is the owner male or female?" — that question has no bearing on anything. Ask "is livre masculine?" and answer that.

English is the odd one out here, not French. German, Spanish and Italian all agree with the noun; English moved the agreement to the owner and few other European languages followed.

Exception — ma becomes mon before a vowel

If a feminine noun starts with a vowel or a silent h, the masculine form is used:

This is not a change of gender, only of sound. amie is still feminine: mon amie est gentille.

The same for ta → ton and sa → son.

leur — and the s that only comes with a noun

That pronoun is covered in pronoms-coi.

notre/votre vs nos/vos

These have no gender, only number:

When you do not use a possessive — body parts

With body parts French uses the article, not a possessive:

Ownership comes from the reflexive verb or from context. English always says "my hands", so this is one of the most frequent slips.

Exception: if the body part carries an adjective, the possessive comes back: ses longs cheveux.

Two other ways to say who owns something

The detail is in a-ou-de.

Examples

Common mistakes

Why French does not look at the owner