Elle trouve son short plus pratique quand il fait très chaud.

she

Breakdown of Elle trouve son short plus pratique quand il fait très chaud.

• quand: when
• chaud: hot
• plus: more

Questions & Answers about Elle trouve son short plus pratique quand il fait très chaud.

Why is it son short and not sa short, even though the owner is a woman (elle)?

In French, son / sa / ses agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.

• short (meaning “a pair of shorts”) is a masculine singular noun in French: un short.
• Therefore you must use the masculine singular possessive: son short (“her/his short[s]”).

Examples:

• Elle aime son pantalon. (pantalon = masc.)
• Elle aime sa jupe. (jupe = fem.)
• Elle aime ses chaussures. (chaussures = plural)

So even though elle is female, the possessive is son because short is masculine.

Why is short singular in French, when in English we say “shorts” in the plural?

French treats this item of clothing as a single garment:

• un short = “a pair of shorts”
• des shorts = “(several) pairs of shorts”

The noun is grammatically singular when you’re talking about one pair. It’s the same idea as:

• un pantalon = a pair of trousers/pants
• un jean = a pair of jeans

So son short means “her shorts” (one pair).

Could we say le short instead of here?