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.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

leur m pl or f pl

  1. (personal, indirect) (to) them
    Je leur ai donné un coup de main.
    I gave them a hand.
French personal pronouns
number person gender nominative
(subject) 		accusative
(direct complement) 		dative
(indirect complement) 		locative
(at) 		genitive
(of) 		disjunctive
(tonic)1 		emphatic
reflexive 		relative proximal distal
singular first — je, j’ me, m’ — — moi moi-même —
second — tu te, t’ — — toi toi-même —
third masculine il2 le, l’ lui y en lui lui-même celui celui-ci celui-là
feminine elle la, l’ elle elle-même celle celle-ci celle-là
indeterminate on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, ça — — — — — — ce ceci cela, ça
reflexive — se, s’5 — — soi soi-même —
plural first — nous nous — — nous nous-mêmes —
second6 — vous vous — — vous vous-mêmes,
vous-même6 		—
third masculine ils7 les leur y en eux7 eux-mêmes7 ceux ceux-ci ceux-là
feminine elles elles elles-mêmes celles celles-ci celles-là

1 The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d’, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
2 Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
3 On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
4 The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
5 The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
6 Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
7 Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

Determiner

leur m or f (plural leurs)

  1. their
    J'aperçois leur maison d'ici.
    I can see their house from here.

Derived terms

French possessive determiners
possessee
singular plural
m f
possessor singular 1st mon1 ma mes
2nd ton1 ta tes
3rd son1 sa ses
plural 1st notre nos
2nd votre2 vos2
3rd 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.
For the singular persons there are gender-neutral neologisms man, tan, san. These are extremely rare.

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French lor.

Pronoun

leur

  1. (object pronoun) them

Descendants

  • French: leur
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