Look at these sentences:
J'aime bien ta voiture, elle est mieux que la leur.
I like your car, it's better than theirs.
Es-tu propriétaire de ta maison? Nous allons acheter la nôtre.
Do you own your house? We're going to buy ours.
Ces lunettes de soleil ne sont pas les leurs.
Those sunglasses are not theirs.
The expressions for 'ours', 'yours' and 'theirs' in French agree in gender and number with the noun they imply or replace:
| ours | yours (pl) | theirs | |
| masc.sing. | le nôtre | le vôtre | le leur |
| fem.sing. | la nôtre | la vôtre | la leur |
| masc.pl. | les nôtres | les vôtres | les leurs |
| fem.pl. | les nôtres | les vôtres | les leurs |
See also Le mien, le tien, le sien, etc = Mine, yours, his/hers/its (possessive pronouns)
and Expressing possession with être à
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Ces lunettes de soleil ne sont pas les leurs.
Those sunglasses are not theirs.
Es-tu propriétaire de ta maison? Nous allons acheter la nôtre.
Do you own your house? We're going to buy ours.
J'aime bien ta voiture, elle est mieux que la leur.
I like your car, it's better than theirs.
À qui sont ces stylos? - Ce sont les vôtres.
Whose are these pens? - They're yours.
Q&A
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
3/01/17
"Nos" is the possessive adjective "our", which you use with plural nouns:
- "Nos amis" (Our friends), "nos grands projets" (our big plans), "nos aventures" (our adventures)...
See the lesson:
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/my-languages/french/view/3113
"Les nôtres" is the possessive pronoun "ours", which replaces a previously mentioned thing:
- "À qui sont ces chaussures ? Ce sont les nôtres." (Whose shoes are those? They're ours.)
I hope that's helpful!
Bonne Année !
Meghna
Kwiziq community member
5/01/17
M
Paul
Kwiziq community member
2 February 2018
5 replies
I like my car. I like theirs too.
This is a question of when does something become plural. In the question of how do we translate "I like my car. I like theirs too." or "J'aime ma voiture. J'aime ________ aussi." My car is definitely singular, however, why is the answer "la leur" when we are talking about comparing more than one car, maybe. The sentence alone doesn't say how many are in "THEIR" group, we could be talking about a couple, or a much larger group, it's not clear in the context.
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
2 February 2018
2/02/18
For the purposes of this lesson, plural refers to the owners. The size of the group only matters if it's singular (one - see below) or plural (more than one). When it's more than one, you need le/la/les leur/s. La leur means "theirs" as in "belonging to them, and the pronoun is singular because there's only one car. If there were several cars, you'd say "les leurs."
Compare this to "I like his [car]" - J'aime la sienne, "I like his [cars]" - J'aime les siennes.
Does that make sense?
Chris
Kwiziq community member
2 February 2018
2/02/18
J'aim la leure aussi. -- I like theirs, too.
J'aime les leures aussi. -- I like their cars, too.
I guess in English one would add the word "cars" to make it clear one is referring to more than one car and distinguish it from the first possibility.
(Just as an aside: their is always more than one PERSON in the group, since "their" is 3rd person plural. The question is about how many cars belong to that group.)
-- Chris (not a native speaker9.
Chris
Kwiziq community member
2 February 2018
2/02/18
Chris
Kwiziq community member
2 February 2018
2/02/18
J'aime la leur.
J'aime les leurs.
-- Chris.
Paul
Kwiziq community member
2 February 2018
2/02/18
Paul