lolo shady 1256

ganatalla s.B1Kwiziq community member

lolo shady 1256

if it start with y is it will be mon or ma

Asked 6 months ago
CélineNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour Ganatalla,

This is a really interesting question! Maarten's explanation is good although there's a tiny bit more to it.

Thanks to you both, we've now updated the lesson to include a clear explanation as to which possessive pronoun (mon/ton/etc. or ma/ta/etc.) to use when "y" is at the beginning of a word. 

"Ma" becomes "mon" with feminine nouns starting with a vowel or mute h (French Possessive Adjectives)

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Ganatalla 

where did this question come from ? 

It is relevant only to a tiny, single-digit number of French feminine singular nouns, that might be used with a possessive adjective " ma, ta, sa " or " mon, ton, son " depending on whether the y is a vowel or semi-vowel ! 

Did you have any specific cases in mind ?

In short if the y is a ‘vowel’, it acts as a vowel grammatically ( eg with elisions, changing to "mon, ton, son" etc ), but if the y is a ‘semi vowel’ it will act as a consonant grammatically. This is based on usage and information in wordreference and other dictionaries.

See the description and links in the text by Laura Lawless for the definition of vowel or semi vowel used.

You can search dictionaries for representative nouns - not only is the number of them small, but those that exist are almost all quite uncommon or technical in usage.

 https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/yp%C3%A9rite/83009

 https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/y/

 https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A8Y0006

 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/yaourti%C3%A8re 

https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A8Y0009

lolo shady 1256

if it start with y is it will be mon or ma

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