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)	Disjunctive (tonic)
Singular	First	—	je, j’	me, m’		moi
	Second	—	tu	te, t’		toi
	Third	Masculine	il	le, l’	lui	lui
		Feminine	elle	la, l’		elle
		Gender neutral5	iel	lea		ellui
		Indeterminate	on1	—	—	—
		Reflexive	—	se, s’4		soi4
Plural	First	—	nous	nous		nous
	Second	—	vous2	vous2,3		vous2
	Third	Masculine	ils3	les	leur	eux
		Feminine	elles			elles
		Gender neutral5	iels			elleux

¹ Also used as the first person plural.

² Also used as the polite singular form.

³ Also used when a group has both men and women.

⁴ Also used as third person plural reflexive.

⁵ Colloquial, and not in popular use.

Determiner

leur (plural leurs)

1. their

   Je peux voir leur maison d’ici.

   I can see their house from here.

Derived terms

• le leur
• leurdit

Related terms

			Possessee
			Singular		Plural
			Masculine	Feminine
Possessor	Singular	First person	mon1	ma	mes
		Second person	ton1	ta	tes
		Third person	son1	sa	ses
	Plural	First person	notre		nos
		Second person	votre2		vos2
		Third person	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.

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