Possession
There are many ways to express the fact that something "belongs" to someone. Here are the most common ones.
This structure is very similar to the structure ".... of ..." in English: la capitale de la France (the capital of France), les étudiants de l'université (the students of the university)
Remarks:
a. When "de" is used with the article "le", we use "du" instead of "de le": de + le = du .
b. When "de" is used with the article "les", we use "des" instead of "de les": de + les = des .
You can use the prepostion "à", but only after "être". In that case, "être" means "to belong":
Remarks:
a. When "à" is used with the article "le", we use "au" instead of "à le": à + le = au .
b. When "à" is used with the article "les", we use "aux" instead of "à les": à + les = aux .
Another way to express possession is to use a possessive adjective.
Here's a table with all the possessive adjectives:
à moi |
à toi |
à lui/elle |
à nous |
à vous |
à eux/elles |
|
Masculin |
Mon
père |
Ton
cousin |
Son
frère |
Notre
fille |
Votre
sac |
Leur
bureau |
Féminin |
Ma
mère Mon
amie |
Ta
cousine Ton
étudiante |
Sa
sœur Son
adresse |
|||
Pluriel |
Mes
parents |
Tes
cousins |
Ses
copines |
Nos
livres |
Vos
enfants |
Leurs
stylos |
Remarks:
a. As for the articles, the possessive adjective must be in agreement with the noun (male/female, singualr/plural).
b. Another thing to take into account when choosing the correct possessive adjective is whom the object (or person or idea or..) you're talking about "belongs" to: to me (mon, ma, mes), to you (ton, ta, tes), to him or her (son, sa, ses), etc.
c. The normal féminin form is "ma, ta, sa" but before a vowel (or vowel sound), we use "mon, ton, son" and we make a "liaison" between the "n" and the vowel sound: mon amie, ton adresse, son étudiante
d. This means that for words beginning with a vowel, there's no difference between the masculin and féminin forms of the possessive: son ami et son amie, mon étudiant et mon étudiante.
e. As for the articles, there's no difference between masculin and féminin for the plural: mes fils et mes filles, tes cousins et tes cousines, nos stylos et nos gommes, etc.