Grammar: Pronouns - Possessive and Indefinite

Grammar: Pronouns - Possessive and Indefinite

Section: Possessive Pronouns

  • Possessive pronouns allow you to specify ownership of something. They replace a noun and will match this noun in gender, number and type.

  • Possessive pronouns have two parts. The first part changes according to the owner and the second part changes according to the object.

  • In French, there is le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes (mine), le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes (yours) and so on.

  • Remember, unlike in English, these change depending on whether the object owned is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.

Section: Indefinite Pronouns

  • Indefinite pronouns refer to non-specific objects or people, translating to ‘someone’, ‘anyone’, ‘no one’ and other similar terms in English.

  • Some common indefinite pronouns include quelqu’un (someone, anybody), chacun (each one), tout le monde (everyone), personne (no one), rien (nothing).

  • The verb that follows these pronouns generally takes a singular form.

Section: Interrogative Pronouns

  • Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. They are qui (who), que (whom or what), lequel (which one), quoi (what) and où (where).

  • The pronoun qui can refer to either people or things, and can be used as both a subject and an object in a sentence.

  • The pronoun que can also refer to people or things but can only be used as an object.

  • Lequel combines with a, de, and sometimes even que or qui to form expressions like auquel, duquel, lequel.

Section: Relative Pronouns

  • Relative pronouns link clauses or sentences together.

  • Some common relative pronouns include qui (who, which, that as a subject), que (whom, which, that as an object), dont (whose), où (where, when).

  • The pronoun qui is used to refer to the subject of the clause it introduces, regardless of whether it’s a person or a thing.

  • The pronoun que is used to refer to the direct object of the clause it introduces, and it also can refer to both people and things.

  • The preposition à + qui is represented by auquel, à laquelle, auxquels, or auxquelles, depending on the gender and number of the noun that follows.

  • The pronoun dont is used to express ‘of which’, ‘from which’ or ‘whose’ and où can refer to places or moments in time.