Marie tient le chat dans ses bras.

Marie holds the cat in her arms.

Breakdown of Marie tient le chat dans ses bras.

• Marie: Marie
• le chat: the cat
• dans: in
• ses: her
• tenir: to hold
• le bras: the arm

Questions & Answers about Marie tient le chat dans ses bras.

What tense and person is tient, and how is tenir conjugated here?

Tient is the 3rd person singular of tenir in the present indicative. The full present tense conjugation is:
je tiens, tu tiens, il/elle tient, nous tenons, vous tenez, ils/elles tiennent.

What's the difference between tenir and porter in French?

Tenir means “to hold” or “to grasp,” focusing on keeping something in one’s hand or arms. Porter means “to carry” (transport from one place to another) or “to wear” (clothes, accessories). Here, since Marie is cradling the cat, tenir is the appropriate verb.

Why is it dans ses bras instead of sur ses bras?

The idiomatic way to say “hold in one’s arms” in French is tenir dans les bras. Using sur (“on”) wouldn’t convey the idea of cradling or embracing; dans (“in”) shows that the cat is nestled inside her arms.

How does the possessive adjective ses work in dans ses bras?

Ses is the 3rd person singular possessive adjective (used with il/elle) for plural nouns. Because bras is plural, we use ses regardless of the gender of the possessor (here, Marie).

Why is there a definite article le before chat?

In French, nouns usually require an article or determiner. Here le chat (“the cat”) indicates a specific cat. If the sentence meant “a cat,” you would use un chat instead.

Can you omit the article and say Marie tient chat?

No. Unlike English, French almost always requires an article (definite, indefinite, or partitive) before a noun. Omitting it would be ungrammatical.

Could we replace ses bras with les bras and say Marie tient le chat dans les bras?

Grammatically yes, but it’s less natural. Les bras (“the arms”) without a possessive sounds generic—whose arms? Using ses bras clarifies that Marie is holding the cat in her own arms.