What are the French possessive adjectives for plural possessors?

Notre and nos for our, votre and vos for your, leur and leurs for their. The short form goes with a singular noun and the -s form with a plural one, and none of the six changes for gender.

Why don't notre, votre, and leur have feminine forms?

The distinction was lost historically, as it was with les and des. Only the singular-owner set kept a separate feminine, which is why ma and mon differ but notre serves both notre père and notre mère.

Is it leur maison or leurs maisons?

Leur maison if there's one house and leurs maisons if there are several. The number of owners is irrelevant: a family of six sharing one house still says leur maison.

How do I know whether leur takes an -s?

Look at the next word. Before a noun it's a possessive and pluralises with the noun: leurs livres. Before a verb it's the pronoun meaning to them and stays as it is: je leur parle. A single sentence can contain both.

What's the difference between votre and le vôtre?

Votre is a determiner and always has a noun after it: votre voiture. Le vôtre replaces the whole phrase: la mienne est vieille, la vôtre est neuve. The circumflex marks the closed o of the pronoun form.

French grammar · Beginner

French Possessive Adjectives with Plural Possessors: Notre, Votre, Leur

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

The plural-possessor possessives are notre and nos, votre and vos, leur and leurs. They mark only number, never gender, so the whole set contains six words instead of the nine you need for a single owner.

Nos amis ont oublié leurs billets dans votre voiture.

Our friends left their tickets in your car.

What it is

When the owner is a group, French stops distinguishing gender. Notre, votre, and leur go with a singular noun of either gender; nos, vos, and leurs go with a plural noun of either gender. That's the entire system.

notre père, notre mère, nos parents — our father, our mother, our parents. The first two are identical in form.

How to spot it

The only question is how many things are owned. If the noun is singular, use the short form; if it's plural, use the one ending in -s.

notre équipe — our team (one team)
nos équipes — our teams (several)
leur opinion — their opinion (one opinion between them)
leurs opinions — their opinions (several)

Compare this with the singular-owner set, where ma and mon differ by gender. Here notre serves both, which removes half the decision.

Possessive Adjectives Plural Possessors Quick Reference

The plural-possessor paradigm

Owners	Singular noun	Plural noun	Example
nous — our	notre	nos	notre fils / nos fils
vous — your	votre	vos	votre adresse / vos adresses
ils, elles — their	leur	leurs	leur chien / leurs chiens
Gender	no separate form	no separate form	notre frère, notre sœur
Before a vowel	no change, liaison in speech	no change, liaison in speech	notre ami, nos amis
Matching pronouns	le nôtre, le vôtre, le leur	les nôtres, les vôtres, les leurs	C'est le nôtre.

Common Possessive Adjectives Plural Possessors Examples in French

Six forms across ordinary sentences:

One Thing Owned

Notre appartement est au troisième.: Our flat is on the third floor.
Votre dossier est complet.: Your file is complete.
Leur fille étudie à Bordeaux.: Their daughter is studying in Bordeaux.
Notre réunion commence à neuf heures.: Our meeting starts at nine.

Réunion is feminine and appartement is masculine, yet both take notre. Gender simply isn't marked here.

Several Things Owned

Nos valises sont dans le coffre.: Our suitcases are in the boot.
Vos remarques étaient justes.: Your comments were fair.
Leurs voisins se plaignent souvent.: Their neighbours complain a lot.
Nous rangeons nos affaires.: We're putting our things away.

The -s is silent, so speech relies on the vowel: notre and nos sound clearly different even though the -s isn't heard.

Set Against the Singular-Owner Forms

ma chambre et notre chambre: my bedroom and our bedroom
ta réponse et votre réponse: your answer (informal) and your answer (formal or plural)
son projet et leur projet: his project and their project
mes clés et nos clés: my keys and our keys

Only the left-hand column ever changes for gender. Once the owner is plural, that distinction disappears entirely.

The Pronoun Forms

Votre maison est plus grande que la nôtre.: Your house is bigger than ours.
Ces places sont les vôtres.: These seats are yours.
Notre voiture roule mieux que la leur.: Our car runs better than theirs.
Les nôtres sont déjà partis.: Ours have already left.

Nôtre and vôtre take a circumflex as pronouns, and the o is pronounced closed. Leur never takes one.

The Rules Behind the Six Forms

A short paradigm with one counter-intuitive rule and one trap involving an identical-looking pronoun.

Number, Not Gender

These forms mark only how many things are owned. That halves the paradigm compared with mon, ma, mes, and it means you can stop looking up genders once the owner is plural.

notre voisin et notre voisine

our neighbour (male) and our neighbour (female)

Same form, both genders.

The -S Belongs to the Thing Owned

Nos, vos, and leurs are plural because the noun is plural, not because there are several owners. Two people who share one car say leur voiture, not leurs voiture.

Ils ont garé leur voiture devant chez nous.

They parked their car in front of our place.

Count the object, not the owners.

Leur as a Determiner Agrees; Leur as a Pronoun Doesn't

Leur before a noun is a possessive and takes -s in the plural. Leur before a verb is the indirect object pronoun meaning to them, and it's invariable in every sentence.

Je leur ai montré leurs photos.

I showed them their photos.

Verb next → no -s.

Votre Is Polite as Well as Plural

Because vous serves both a group and a single person addressed formally, votre and vos do too. Nothing in the form tells you how many people you're talking to.

Monsieur, vos clés sont à la réception.

Sir, your keys are at reception.

vous in any sense → votre, vos.

The Circumflex Marks the Pronoun

Notre and votre are determiners with an open o. Le nôtre and le vôtre are pronouns with a closed o, and the accent records that difference in sound as well as in function.

Votre train part avant le nôtre.

Your train leaves before ours.

Accent + article = pronoun.

Common Mistakes with Possessive Adjectives Plural Possessors

Incorrect: nôtre maison — our house

Correct: notre maison — our house

The circumflex belongs to the pronoun le nôtre. As a determiner in front of a noun, notre is written without one.

Incorrect: leurs voiture — their car

Correct: leur voiture — their car

The -s tracks the noun, not the owners. One car takes leur no matter how many people share it.

Incorrect: Je leurs ai donné les clés. — I gave them the keys.

Correct: Je leur ai donné les clés. — I gave them the keys.

This leur is the indirect object pronoun, sitting in front of the verb. Object pronouns are invariable in French, so it can never take an -s.

Incorrect: vos réunion — your meeting

Correct: votre réunion — your meeting

Vos requires a plural noun. A single meeting takes votre, however many people are attending it.

Two Judgement Calls and One Set of Fixed Phrases

Shared versus individual possession is the only genuinely tricky part of this paradigm.

One each, or one between them

When each person in a group has exactly one of something, French tends to keep the noun singular, because the picture is of one item per person rather than a heap of them.

Les enfants ont mis leur manteau.: The children put their coats on.
Ils ont levé la main.: They raised their hands.
Les candidats ont donné leur avis.: The candidates gave their opinions.
Ils ont apporté leurs affaires.: They brought their things.

The plural returns as soon as the total really is plural: leurs affaires covers many objects per person.

Leur before a verb

Test what follows. A noun makes it the possessive; a verb makes it the object pronoun, which never varies.

Leurs parents leur écrivent souvent.: Their parents write to them often.
Je leur ai prêté leur exemplaire.: I lent them their copy.
Dis-leur la vérité.: Tell them the truth.

Object pronouns in French never agree, so an -s on this leur is always an error.

Fixed phrases

Several set expressions use these possessives, and they're worth learning as blocks because the article behaviour is fixed.

à notre santé: to our health, cheers
de votre part: on your behalf, from you
à leur avis: in their opinion
de notre côté: for our part

De votre part is the standard closing formula in letters: remerciez-le de notre part.

Possessive Adjectives Plural Possessors FAQs

What are the French possessive adjectives for plural possessors?: Notre and nos for our, votre and vos for your, leur and leurs for their. The short form goes with a singular noun and the -s form with a plural one, and none of the six changes for gender.
Why don't notre, votre, and leur have feminine forms?: The distinction was lost historically, as it was with les and des. Only the singular-owner set kept a separate feminine, which is why ma and mon differ but notre serves both notre père and notre mère.
Is it leur maison or leurs maisons?: Leur maison if there's one house and leurs maisons if there are several. The number of owners is irrelevant: a family of six sharing one house still says leur maison.
How do I know whether leur takes an -s?: Look at the next word. Before a noun it's a possessive and pluralises with the noun: leurs livres. Before a verb it's the pronoun meaning to them and stays as it is: je leur parle. A single sentence can contain both.
What's the difference between votre and le vôtre?: Votre is a determiner and always has a noun after it: votre voiture. Le vôtre replaces the whole phrase: la mienne est vieille, la vôtre est neuve. The circumflex marks the closed o of the pronoun form.