Learn French: Mon grand-père aime jouer avec son chat. - My grandfather likes to play with his cat.

Mon grand-père aime jouer avec son chat.

My grandfather likes to play with his cat.

Breakdown of Mon grand-père aime jouer avec son chat.

Questions & Answers about Mon grand-père aime jouer avec son chat.

Why is it son chat and not sa chat?

In French, possessive adjectives like son (his/her) must match the gender of the thing being owned, not the owner. Since chat (cat) is a masculine word, we use the masculine form son. Even if it were a grandmother's cat, it would still be son chat!

Does the word son mean "his" or "her"?

It can actually mean either! Because son only tells us that the noun following it is masculine and singular (like chat), we have to rely on context to know who the owner is. Here, we know it means "his" because the sentence is about mon grand-père (my grandfather).

Could I use ma instead of mon if I am a woman talking about my grandfather?

No, you must always use mon here. Just like with son, the word mon (my) matches the word it is attached to, not the person speaking. Since grand-père is masculine, you use the masculine word mon regardless of your own gender.

Why does the sentence use the infinitive jouer (to play) instead of a conjugated form?

When two verbs appear right next to each other in French, only the first one gets conjugated to match the subject. The first verb here is aime (likes), so the second verb jouer stays in its unconjugated dictionary form, which translates perfectly to "to play".