Possessive Pronouns: le mien, le tien, le sien...
உடைமைச் சுட்டுப்பெயர்கள்: le mien, le tien, le sien...
You already know mon/ma/mes as possessive adjectives sitting before a noun. Possessive pronouns replace the noun entirely — 'mine', 'yours', 'his/hers' — and, like celui, still carry an article and still agree with the thing owned, not the owner.
Grammar Comparison
இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு
Full paradigm: article + possessive stem, agreeing with the noun owned
C'est mon livre → C'est le mien. (It's my book → It's mine.)
இது என் புத்தகம் → இது என்னுடையது. (le mien = 'என்னுடையது', ஆண்பால் ஒருமைப் பொருளுக்கு)
Each person has four forms (masc./fem. × sg./pl.): le mien/la mienne/les miens/les miennes (mine), le tien/la tienne/les tiens/les tiennes (yours, tu), le sien/la sienne/les siens/les siennes (his/hers/its), le/la nôtre, les nôtres (ours), le/la vôtre, les vôtres (yours, vous), le/la leur, les leurs (theirs). The article and ending agree with whatever is owned — the same logic as mon/ma/mes, just now carrying the extra weight of standing in for the noun completely. Tamil expresses all of this with a single possessive suffix on the pronoun (என்னுடையது, உன்னுடையது) regardless of what's owned, so French's gender/number agreement here has no Tamil counterpart to lean on.
le sien is ambiguous, just like son/sa
Marie a perdu son stylo. Paul a trouvé le sien. (Marie lost her pen. Paul found... his own? Or hers, that he found?)
மேரி தன் பேனாவை தொலைத்தாள். பால் தன்னுடையதைக் கண்டுபிடித்தார். (சூழலைப் பொறுத்து 'அவன்/அவள்உடையது')
le sien/la sienne means 'his own' or 'her own' — French doesn't mark the owner's gender any more than son/sa does, only the gendered noun owned. Context has to disambiguate whose it is, exactly as with son/sa. This is a genuine, recurring ambiguity in French that Tamil's தன் (reflexive-possessive, 'one's own') handles the same non-gendered way, which can actually help — think of le sien as தன்னுடையது.
Watch the accent: nôtre/vôtre (pronoun) vs. notre/votre (adjective)
notre maison (our house, adjective) vs. la nôtre (ours, pronoun, circumflex)
எங்கள் வீடு (adjective) vs. எங்களுடையது (pronoun)
This is a pure spelling trap with no pronunciation or Tamil-logic cue to catch it: the possessive adjective notre/votre has no accent, while the pronoun nôtre/vôtre takes a circumflex on the o. The circumflex is the only visual signal that you're looking at a standalone pronoun rather than an adjective sitting in front of a noun — worth drilling on paper, since it's easy to miss when typing quickly.
Vocabulary
சொற்கள்
| French | Pronunciation | Tamil | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| le mien / la mienne | luh mee-AN / lah mee-EN | என்னுடையதுeṉṉuḍaiyadhu | mine |
| le tien / la tienne | luh tee-AN / lah tee-EN | உன்னுடையதுuṉṉuḍaiyadhu | yours (tu) |
| le sien / la sienne | luh see-AN / lah see-EN | அவனுடையது / அவளுடையதுavaṉuḍaiyadhu / avaḷuḍaiyadhu | his / hers / its |
| le/la nôtre, les nôtres | luh/lah NOH-truh, lay NOH-truh | எங்களுடையதுengaḷuḍaiyadhu | ours |
| le/la vôtre, les vôtres | luh/lah VOH-truh, lay VOH-truh | உங்களுடையதுungaḷuḍaiyadhu | yours (vous) |
| le/la leur, les leurs | luh/lah LUHR, lay LUHR | அவர்களுடையதுavargaḷuḍaiyadhu | theirs |