Possessive Pronouns: le mien, le tien, le sien...
संबंधवाचक सर्वनाम: le mien, le tien, le sien...
English has one dedicated, invariant word for each possessive pronoun — mine, yours, his, hers — that never changes shape no matter what's being possessed. Hindi builds its possessive pronouns by combining the possessive adjective (मेरा, तेरा, उसका) with the same वाला/वाली/वाले suffix from the last lesson, and that वाला still agrees with the thing possessed, not the owner — a structural match for French's own agreement-heavy system.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
The full paradigm ≈ Hindi's possessive + वाला/वाली/वाले
le mien / la mienne / les miens / les miennes
मेरा वाला / मेरी वाली / मेरे वाले / मेरी वाली
Every French possessive pronoun has four forms tied to the gender and number of the noun it replaces: mine = le mien/la mienne/les miens/les miennes; yours (tu) = le tien/la tienne/les tiens/les tiennes; his/hers/its = le sien/la sienne/les siens/les siennes. Hindi builds a directly comparable system by taking the possessive adjective you already know (मेरा, तेरा, उसका) and adding वाला/वाली/वाले, which agrees with the possessed noun's gender and number exactly like celui/celle did in the last lesson — मेरा वाला (masc. sg.), मेरी वाली (fem. sg.), मेरे वाले (masc. pl.). Where English collapses everything into one invariant word per person, Hindi — like French — already varies the ending based on what's owned, not who owns it.
Agreement tracks the thing possessed, not the possessor — already true in Hindi
Paul a perdu son stylo ; il a pris le mien.
पॉल का पेन खो गया; उसने मेरा वाला ले लिया।
le mien is masculine because stylo (pen) is masculine — it has nothing to do with whether the speaker saying 'mine' is male or female. Hindi's मेरा वाला works on the identical logic: वाला agrees with पेन (masculine), not with the gender of the speaker saying मेरा वाला — a Hindi speaker already expects possession-words to track the object, not themselves, thanks to मेरा/मेरी/मेरे already behaving this way as possessive adjectives. English speakers often instinctively want the pronoun to reflect who is speaking; neither Hindi nor French ever does that.
le sien is ambiguous between his/her/its — just like Hindi's उसका वाला
Elle a oublié son parapluie ; moi, j'ai pris le sien.
वह अपनी छतरी भूल गई; मैंने उसकी वाली ले ली।
Just as son/sa/ses can mean 'his' or 'her' depending on context rather than the noun's gender, le sien/la sienne can mean 'his', 'hers', or 'its' — the form only tells you the gender/number of the thing possessed, never the gender of the owner. Hindi's उसका वाला/उसकी वाली is exactly as ambiguous: उसकी वाली here just as easily means 'his' or 'hers', since उसकी agrees with छतरी (feminine), not with the owner's gender — so a Hindi speaker never has to unlearn a gendered 'his/hers' instinct here, since Hindi's own उसका/उसकी was never gender-of-owner-specific to begin with.
The article contracts with à and de — a French-only mechanical detail
Je pense à mes parents et il pense aux siens.
मैं अपने माता-पिता के बारे में सोचता हूँ और वह अपनों के बारे में सोचता है।
Because possessive pronouns keep their article, that article follows the normal à/de contraction rules: à + les siens → aux siens. Hindi's वाला-based possessive pronouns carry no article at all, so there's nothing to contract — के बारे में ('about') simply sits before अपनों ('his/her own people') with no article-fusion step required. This mechanical wrinkle is purely a French one, arising from French's article-based system rather than anything a Hindi speaker needs to reproduce.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- मेरा वाला/मेरी वालीmerā vālā/merī vālī
- English
- mine
- Hindi
- तेरा वाला/तेरी वालीterā vālā/terī vālī
- English
- yours (informal singular)
- Hindi
- उसका वाला/उसकी वालीuskā vālā/uskī vālī
- English
- his / hers / its
- Hindi
- हमारा वाला/हमारी वालीhamārā vālā/hamārī vālī
- English
- ours
- Hindi
- आपका वाला/आपकी वालीāpkā vālā/āpkī vālī
- English
- yours (formal / plural)
- Hindi
- उनका वाला/उनकी वालीunkā vālā/unkī vālī
- English
- theirs
- Hindi
- उनके वालेunke vāle
- English
- theirs (plural noun)
- Hindi
- यह किसका है?yah kiskā hai?
- English
- whose is it?
- Hindi
- यह मेरा हैyah merā hai
- English
- it's mine