leur

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French leur, from Old French lor, from Latin illōrum, genitive masculine plural of ille.

As a possessive it was originally uninflected (as still is Italian loro), but adopted the plural ending in Middle French. Feminine -e was hindered by the analogy of other possessives, all of which have but one plural form and in the case of notre, votre no gender agreement at all.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lœʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: leurre, leurrent, leurres, leurs
• Rhymes: -œʁ

Pronoun

leur m pl or f pl

1. (personal, indirect) (to) them

   Je leur ai donné un coup de main.

   I gave them a hand.

Related terms

French personal pronouns

number	person	gender	nominative (subject)	accusative (direct complement)	dative (indirect complement)	locative (at)	genitive (of)	disjunctive (tonic)
singular	first	—	je, j’	me, m’		—	—	moi
	second	—	tu	te, t’		—	—	toi
	third	masculine	il	le, l’	lui	y	en	lui
		feminine	elle	la, l’				elle
		indeterminate	on1	—	—	—	—	—
		reflexive4	—	se, s’		—	—	soi
plural	first	—	nous	nous		—	—	nous
	second2	—	vous	vous		—	—	vous
	third	masculine	ils3	les	leur	y	en	eux3
		feminine	elles					elles

¹ On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
² Vous is also used as the polite singular form.
³ Ils and eux are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.
⁴ These forms are also used as third person plural reflexive.

Determiner

leur (plural leurs)

1. their

   J’aperçois leur maison d’ici.

   I can see their house from here.

Derived terms

• le leur
• leurdit

Related terms

French possessive determiners

			possessee
			singular		plural
			m	f
possessor	singular	1st	mon1	ma	mes
		2nd	ton1	ta	tes
		3rd	son1	sa	ses
	plural	1st	notre		nos
		2nd	votre2		vos2
		3rd	leur		leurs

¹ Also used before feminine adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel or mute h.
² Also used as the polite singular form.
For the singular persons there are gender-neutral neologisms man, tan, san. These are extremely rare.

Further reading

• “leur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• relu

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French lor.

Pronoun

leur

1. (object pronoun) them

Descendants

• French: leur