Vôtres

Vôtres is a French possessive pronoun used to indicate that something belongs to the person or people addressed, specifically in the plural form of the second person. It is the plural form of the older possessive pronoun vôtre and functions as a substantive pronoun, standing in for a noun phrase such as “your [things].” In modern usage, the related possessive determiners are votre and vos, but vôtre and its plural form vôtres remain in use as pronouns.

Forms and usage

The standard forms are le vôtre (masculine singular) and la vôtre (feminine singular), used to say “yours.” For the plural, the expected form is les vôtres, used as a substantive pronoun meaning “yours” in reference to several items or to a group of people. Example: Ce carnet est le vôtre. Ces carnets sont les vôtres. In everyday speech, most speakers rely on the determiner votre/vos (your) for noun phrases, while vôtre/vôtres appears mainly in formal, emphatic, or literary contexts.

Relation to other forms

Vôtre and vos form the modern, common possessive determiners, used with nouns: votre livre, vos livres. Vôtre and ses vowels are retained in pronoun positions to emphasize ownership. The circumflex in vôtre and vôtres signals historical orthographic changes in Old French, where an s followed the vowel, and the spelling evolved over time.

Etymology and orthography

Vôtre derives from the Old French vostre, itself from Latin vester. The circumflex marks a historical loss of a following s and distinguishes the pronoun forms from the determiners. Today, vôtre and ses vôtres appear primarily in pronoun use, while the more common determiners are votre and vos.

See also

French possessive adjectives and pronouns, vos, votre, le vôtre, les vôtres.