Possessives
Introduction to Possessives
For those of you that know French this will be quite simple for you because possessives in Michif are almost the same.
In English possessives are something that goes in front of a noun to show who owns or has it as a possession.
For Example:
- My car.
- His dog.
- Her daughter.
- Our family.
- Their parents.
- Your sister.
In Michif it’s a little more difficult. We have to understand French a little to understand this grammar. Like French Michif uses masculine and feminine nouns. Depending on the gender of the noun. First here are the possessives in Michif.
| My (masculine) moon My (feminine) My (plural) Yours Singular (masculine) | Yours (feminine) ta Your (plural) tes Ours leurs / leurs |
A closer look at possessives!
The possessive pronoun we use depends on what or who is being possessed.
If I speak about my sister, I use ma. If I speak about your sister I use ta.
To further complicate things, if I speak about my brother, I use mon. If I speak about your brother, I use ton
Listen to these phrases and notice the pronunciation of the possessive pronoun. We are just going to look at MY (moon, ma, mii) to give you an idea of how this all works.
The same theory can be applied to the other possessive pronouns that show gender (ton/ta, son/sa)
My Masculine - we use moon.
My father My son My uncle | My husband Moon frayr |
My Feminine – we use ma
My mother My sister My aunt | My wife Ma fii |
Plural – we use mii
When the subject is plural it doesn’t matter if the subject is male or female, a general possessive pronoun is used and there is no gender classification. See the examples below.
My parents My children My sons My daughters | My brothers My sisters My cousins Mii taant |
