leur
French
Etymology
Inherited from Middle French leur, from Old French lor, from Latin illōrum, genitive masculine plural of ille.
As a possessive it was originally uninflected (as still is Italian loro), but adopted the plural ending in Middle French. Feminine -e was hindered by the analogy of other possessives, all of which have but one plural form and in the case of notre, votre no gender agreement at all.
Pronoun
leur m pl or f pl
- (personal, indirect) (to) them
- Je leur ai donné un coup de main.
- I gave them a hand.
Related terms
French personal pronouns
| Number | Person | Gender | Nominative (subject) |
Accusative (direct complement) |
Dative (indirect complement) |
Disjunctive (tonic) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | First | — | je, j’ | me, m’ | moi | |
| Second | — | tu | te, t’ | toi | ||
| Third | Masculine | il | le, l’ | lui | lui | |
| Feminine | elle | la, l’ | elle | |||
| Gender neutral5 | iel | lea | ellui | |||
| Indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | ||
| Reflexive | — | se, s’4 | soi4 | |||
| Plural | First | — | nous | nous | nous | |
| Second | — | vous2 | vous2,3 | vous2 | ||
| Third | Masculine | ils3 | les | leur | eux | |
| Feminine | elles | elles | ||||
| Gender neutral5 | iels | elleux | ||||
- 1 Also used as the first person plural.
- 2 Also used as the polite singular form.
- 3 Also used when a group has both men and women.
- 4 Also used as third person plural reflexive.
- 5 Colloquial, and not in popular use.
Determiner
leur (plural leurs)
- their
- Je peux voir leur maison d’ici.
- I can see their house from here.
Related terms
| Possessee | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| Masculine | Feminine | |||||
| Possessor | Singular | First person | mon1 | ma | mes | |
| Second person | ton1 | ta | tes | |||
| Third person | son1 | sa | ses | |||
| Plural | First person | notre | nos | |||
| Second person | votre2 | vos2 | ||||
| Third person | leur | leurs | ||||
- 1 Also used before feminine adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel or mute h.
- 2 Also used as the polite singular form.
Further reading
- “leur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
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