ma

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.