nôtres

Nôtres is a French pronominal possessive form meaning "ours." It is used to refer to something belonging to the speaker and one or more others when the noun is not repeated, functioning as a substitute for "our [thing]." The corresponding possessive determiner is notre, used before a noun, as in notre maison.

The pronoun has distinct forms by gender and number. The singular forms are le nôtre (masculine) and la nôtre (feminine), used when the noun is implied and the possessive is in reference to a single item or category. The plural form is les nôtres, used for a group of items belonging to us, or more generally to refer to our things in plural. In everyday usage the masculine and feminine distinctions of the singular are common in contexts where the noun’s gender is clear from context.

Etymology and orthography: nôtre derives from the Old French nostre/nostre, from Latin noster, with the circumflex indicating a historical loss of a consonant (often s). The modern vowel shows the same root in all forms, while the plural evolves as les nôtres. The pronunciation remains close to “noh-truh” in careful speech, with the s in plural forms not pronounced as a separate sibilant.

Usage notes: nôtre is formal and literary enough to appear in written prose; in casual speech speakers typically use the determiner notre and rely on the surrounding context to indicate possession. For emphasis or to contrast with someone else’s property, phrases like le nôtre / les nôtres are common, and evidence of plural ownership is shown by les.

See also: notre, vôtre, leur, pronouns in French possessive system.