Kilo Lingo

/ma/

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Translation

my (feminine singular)

Word origin

The feminine singular possessive 'my', from Latin mea, the feminine of meus ('my, mine'). The same root gave English my and mine through a different Germanic line.

Origin
Latin
Root
mea

Examples

tous .

My mother prepares dinner every evening at around seven.

J' l' .

I left my key inside the house.

soeur l' Lyon.

My sister studies law at the university of Lyon.

, garée .

Here is my car, it is parked just in front.

, c' .

My room looks out on the garden, it is very quiet.

Ma is the feminine singular form of the first-person possessive adjective in French, meaning "my" when the thing possessed is grammatically feminine: ma mère (my mother), ma maison (my house). Like all French possessives, it agrees with the noun being possessed, not with the speaker, so a male or female speaker uses the same ma.

The catch is that ma is replaced by the masculine form mon when the next word starts with a vowel or mute h, even if the noun is feminine: mon amie (my friend, feminine), mon histoire (my story). French does this to avoid the awkward vowel collision of ma amie. The pattern repeats across the possessive set: ta becomes ton, sa becomes son, all for the same phonetic reason. See the French possessives guide for the full table.

Used in

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Grammar articles

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This word is part of lesson 2.