Demonstrative adjectives are used to show, to specify the person or the thing that is being discussed. English equivalents are this book, or those tables. French demonstrative adjective forms are as follows:
^2 SINGULAR^5 PLURAL
MASCULINE^2 Ce (+ consonant)^5 Ces
^2 (This, That)^5 (These, Those)
^2 Cet (+ vowel or mute h)^5 Ces
^2 (This, That)^5 (These, Those)
FEMININE^2 Cette^5 Ces
^2 (This, That)^5 (These, Those)
Never forget that they are called demonstrative `adjectives in French: this is very important because it means that these adjectives modify a noun and therefore they must have the same gender and number as the noun they modify.
Cette Θtudiante est franτaise.
(This/That student is French)
In this sentence, I know that the noun (Θtudiante) is feminine singular, as is the adjective (franτaise). Therefore, the demonstrative adjective (this/that) must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. This is why the form cette which is feminine singular was selected.
Ces livres sont intΘressants.
(These/Those books are interesting)
In this case the masculine plural form of the demonstrative adjective was selected because the noun modified by this demonstrative adjective is masculine plural.
As you see, there are two forms for the masculine singular demonstrative adjective. Use ce when it is followed by a consonant. Use cet when it is followed by a vowel or a mute h:
Ce gΓteau^3 Cet ami^5 Cet homme
(This cake)^3 (This friend)^5 (This man)
There is only one plural form of the demonstrative adjective in French:
^2 SINGULAR^4 PLURAL
MASCULINE^2 Ce gΓteau^4 Ces gΓteaux
^2 (This/That cake)^4 (These/Those cakes)
^2 Cet ami^4 Ces amis
^2 (This/That friend)^4 (These/Those friends)
^2 Cet homme^4 Ces hommes
^2 (This/That man)^4 (These/Those men)
FEMININE^2 Cette femme^4 Ces femmes
^2 (This/That woman)^4 (These/Those women)
^2 Cette tomate^4 Ces tomates
^2 (This/That tomato)^4 (These/Those tomatoes)
^2 Cette histoire^4 Ces histoires
^2 (This/That story)^4 (These/Those stories)
Possessive adjectives.
Possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession or ownership. English equivalents are my table, your car, or their house. French possessive adjectives forms are as follows:
^1 MASCULINE^3 FEMININE^4 MASCULINE^6 FEMININE
ENGLISH^1 SINGULAR^3 SINGULAR^4 PLURAL^6 PLURAL
my^1 mon^3 ma^4 mes^6 mes
your (fam)^1 ton^3 ta^4 tes^6 tes
his^1 son^3 sa^4 ses^6 ses
her^1 son^3 sa^4 ses^6 ses
its^1 son^3 sa^4 ses^6 ses
our^1 notre^3 notre^4 nos^6 nos
your^1 votre^3 votre^4 vos^6 vos
their^1 leur^3 leur^4 leurs^6 leurs
Never forget that they are called possessive `adjectives in French: this is very important because it means that this adjective modifies a noun and therefore it must have the same gender and number as the noun it modifies. As you will see below, this makes the use of these possessive adjectives quite different in French and in English.
In English, you can speak, for instance, of <Sarah's <book as being >her <book. In the same manner, you can speak of <Henry's <book as being >his <book. In one case you used the form her, and the form his in another case because the book was "owned" by a female or a male. Your choice of possessive adjective in English is made because of who or what owns the book, the car or anything else. In French, the possessive is an adjective. It does not matter if the book belongs to Sarah or to Henry. As an adjective, the possessive can only have the gender and the number of the noun it modifies, not the gender or number of who or what "owns" this noun. Therefore the only correct translation for her book or his book is son livre because livre is a masculine noun.
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As you have seen before, when a noun begins with a vowel or a mute h instead of a consonant, the word that comes before may have to be spelled differently. This happens also with possessive adjectives. With feminine singular nouns beginning with a vowel or a mute h, the possessive adjectives ma, ta and sa are replaced by mon, ton and son. This is only to make the pronunciation easier and does not mean that the gender of the noun is changed:
DO NOT USE^2 INSTEAD USE^4 WITH^6 TRANSLATION
ma^2 m{on}^4 {a}utomobile^6 my car
ta^2 t{on}^4 {h}istoire^6 your story
sa^2 s{on}^4 {e}au minΘrale^6 his/her car
Mon automobile et son automobile sont jolies.
(My car and his/her car are beautiful)
Telling time.
"Quelle heure est-il?" is the question one uses to ask what time it is in French. This question is answered as follows:
Il est 3 heures.^4 It is 3 o'clock.
As you will see in all examples used for telling time, you must always express the hour(s) before you express the minute(s) in French. Do not spell numbers out. "Heure" is a noun; make it plural if there is more than one hour.
Il est 7 heures 10^4 It is 7:10
Il est 6 heures 40^4 It is 6:40
Il est 7 heures moins 20^4 It is 6:40 (7 hours less 20 min)
Special times during the hour are expressed as follows:
Il est 2 heures et quart^4 It is 2:15 (2 hours + a quarter)
Il est 2 heures 15^4 It is 2:15
Il est 4 heures et demie^4 It is 4:30 (4 hours + a half)
Il est 4 heures trente^4 It is 4:30
Il est 12 heures trois-quarts^4 It is 12:45
Il est 1 heure moins le quart^4 It is 12:45 (1 hour less 15 min)
Il est 12 heures 45^4 It is 12:45
The 24 hour clock is used a lot in French. You can also use the following expressions to tell the time of day:
