In the first sentence it is votre frere andthe answer is vôtre frere???
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
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.
Ces lunettes de soleil ne sont pas les leurs.
Those sunglasses are not theirs.
Q&A Forum 6 questions, 13 answers
Hi Maiju,
I am not sure what first sentence you are referring to but -
'votre' is 'your' and doesn't have a circumflex accent on it and it will be followed by a noun -
C'est votre frère? = Is he your brother?
But Le/la vôtre is yours and does have the accent.
Ce livre, c'est le vôtre? = Is this book yours?
Hope this helps!
Maiju asked:View original
votre without ô like vôtre; any reason for that?
In the first sentence it is votre frere andthe answer is vôtre frere???
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BrianKwiziq community member
Nos vs. Les nôtres & Vos vs. Les vôtres
Hi, the A & B of each pair seems to fulfil the same purpose. What are the rules on when to use each type?
Asked 3 months ago
Cettes chaussures sont nos chausseures, elles sont les nôtres. -- These shoes are our shoes, the are ours.
Nos/vos are possessive pronouns, les nôtres/les vôtres is used as a noun.
Brian asked:View original
Nos vs. Les nôtres & Vos vs. Les vôtres
Hi, the A & B of each pair seems to fulfil the same purpose. What are the rules on when to use each type?
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AndreaKwiziq community member
Is the following grammatical?
In order to say, "i prefer our houses to theirs" is it acceptable to say, "Je préfère nos maisons à les leurs ." ?
As an aside, I found it so easy to add accents in this new format. It is a super improvement indeed!
Asked 5 months ago
DominiqueKwiziq community member
non, malheureusement, j'ai bien peur que tu doives dire" aux leurs", puisque "a les" n'existe pas en francais et est toujours emplace par "aux"
Andrea asked:View original
Is the following grammatical?
In order to say, "i prefer our houses to theirs" is it acceptable to say, "Je préfère nos maisons à les leurs ." ?
As an aside, I found it so easy to add accents in this new format. It is a super improvement indeed!
Don't have an account yet? Join today
KevinKwiziq community member
replacement of nouns gender and numbrer issue
Consider "Ses plantes sont plus belles que les notres."
The "les notres" replaces the plural noun "plantes" which is feminine; so why is the " les notres masculine? What am I missing here? Would appreciate imput.
Best wishes
Kevin
Asked 9 months ago
There is no difference between masculine and feminine plurals, so "les nôtres" is also the feminine.
Kevin asked:View original
replacement of nouns gender and numbrer issue
Consider "Ses plantes sont plus belles que les notres."
The "les notres" replaces the plural noun "plantes" which is feminine; so why is the " les notres masculine? What am I missing here? Would appreciate imput.
Best wishes
Kevin
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PaulKwiziq community member
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.
Asked 1 year ago
LauraKwiziq team member
Bonjour Paul,
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 Q&A super contributor
You are correct, Paul, in that the French sentence allows for one or many cars to be liked. Correspondingly, the two possibilities in French are:
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 Q&A super contributor
Zut! And I committed some typos, too!!!!
J'aime la leur.
J'aime les leurs.
-- Chris.
PaulKwiziq community member
Thanks for the reply Chris, I suppose I'm being a bit pedantic, but it wasn't clear at first how may "cars" there were. I could imagine a couple owning one car, or say for contrast I'm at a car show and comparing my car with the wider group of many cars.
Paul
Paul asked:View original
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.
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MeghnaKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Les nôtres or les nos
In the question about ses plantes sont plus belles que _____ I got the response les nos. As incorrect. The correct response is les nôtres. Please help me understand when nos is used?
Asked 2 years ago
Bonjour Meghna !
"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:
Notre, nos, votre, vos, leur, leurs = our, your, their (possessive adjectives)
"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 asked:View original
Les nôtres or les nos
In the question about ses plantes sont plus belles que _____ I got the response les nos. As incorrect. The correct response is les nôtres. Please help me understand when nos is used?
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