Why Masculine Form?

Beatrice asks: Quel est son nom? … regarding this girl that her brother is living with. Why is it “son nom” and not “sa nom” since she is asking about a female?

le nom
It’s matching the noun.

son = His, her, its (used to qualify masculine nouns).

The possessive adjectives in french are :

( My ) -----> Mon [Masc.] Ma [Fem.] Mes [ Plural]
( Your) -----> Ton [Masc. ] Ta [Fem. ] Tes [ Plural ]
(His/Her/Its) ------> Son [ Masc.] Sa [Fem.] Ses [ Plural ]

(Our) -------> Notre [ Masc.] Notre [ Fem.] Nos [ Plural ]
(Your) ------->Votre [ Masc.] Votre [ Fem.] Vos [ Plural ]
(Their) -------> Leur [ Masc.] Leur [ Fem.] Leurs [ Plural]

To know which french possessive adjective to use you have to know the following :

  • The gender of the noun AFTER it / the possessed noun ( In your case in " nom " )

  • Is the noun plural / singular ( nom / noms)

So in the sentence " Quel est son nom ? " , nom is a masculine word , therefore the possessive adjective that comes before it should be masculine . Its a bit tricky at first , because it’s different from what you’re used to in English , but you’ll get used to it .

And note that she is not asking about the female , She is asking about the name of the of the female , And since name ( nom) is masculine , then the Possessive Adjective will be masculine .

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Ah, that makes sense now. I thought the possessive adjective reflected the subject but I understand now that it reflects the noun (in this case, nom). Thank you very much for the information.