Questions & Answers about Ma grand-mère et mon cousin sont contents.
Why do we use ma for the grandmother but mon for the cousin? Does it depend on who is speaking?
In French, possessive words like my match the gender of the person or thing you own or are talking about, not your own gender. Since grand-mère is feminine, we use ma. Because cousin is masculine, we use mon. It does not matter if the person speaking is a man or a woman! Is the word cousin only used for male cousins?
Yes! In French, a male cousin is un cousin (so you say mon cousin) and a female cousin is une cousine (so you say ma cousine). Why does the word contents end in an -s here?
The word contents (happy) describes both the grandmother and the cousin together, making it plural. In French, when a group includes at least one male (the masculine cousin) and one female (the feminine grand-mère), the describing word takes the masculine plural form, which usually adds an -s. Why is there no extra -e on grand in grand-mère if a mother is feminine?
Even though mère (mother) is feminine, the word for grandmother is always spelled grand-mère with a hyphen and without a feminine -e on grand. It is an old traditional spelling that just needs to be memorized. Learn Ma grand-mère et mon cousin sont contents and more in French
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