Breakdown of Ses cousins habitent déjà à l’étranger et l’aident à pratiquer la langue.
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Questions & Answers about Ses cousins habitent déjà à l’étranger et l’aident à pratiquer la langue.
Why is it ses cousins and not leurs cousins?
In French, ses means “his” or “her” (plural things), and it refers to the subject of the sentence.
- Ses cousins = his cousins or her cousins (we don’t know the gender from the sentence alone)
- Leurs cousins = their cousins (cousins belonging to several people)
Here, there is only one person whose cousins are being talked about (the same person as l’ in l’aident), so French uses ses, not leurs.
Why is cousins masculine plural? How would I say “female cousins”?
Cousins here is the masculine plural form. In French:
- un cousin = a male cousin
- une cousine = a female cousin
- des cousins = (at least one male) cousins, or gender-mixed group
- des cousines = only female cousins
So if they were all female, you could say:
- Ses cousines habitent déjà à l’étranger…
His / her female cousins already live abroad…
What’s the difference between habiter and vivre here?