1

In the sentence “Grégoire est content parce qu'il a son permis de conduire maintenant.”, would you use the word son? If not which article would you use, if at all?

1
  • Please ask unrelated questions in different posts. Moreover your second question was quite unclear. Please add more details about conditions for which you believe that the use of a time indicator is not allowed. Aug 20, 2013 at 15:23

3 Answers 3

2

Yes, that's correct. In your first example, one would use son as it's the right possessive determiner (son is for permis de conduire which is masculine singular).

On your second question, that's correct as well: it's totally ok to use the indicator of time in this case. It just adds more precision.

2

In that case, both son and le would be correct :

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a son permis de conduire maintenant.

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a le permis de conduire maintenant.

Even if you use le, the meaning of the sentence implies that it is Grégoire's one, it would be absurd if it was the driving licence of another person. And it is the same for the second sentence :

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a eu son permis de conduire hier.

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a eu le permis de conduire hier.

1

Both

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a son permis de conduire maintenant.

and

Grégoire est content parce qu'il a le permis de conduire maintenant.

are correct if you are speaking about the fact that he passed the exam. If you are speaking about the paper proving the fact that he passed the exam, you'll use only "son". ("Grégoire est venu en bus, il n'a pas le permis ? — Si, mais arrivé à l'aéroport il s'est rendu compte qu'il avait oublié son permis chez lui et n'a pas pu louer de voiture.")

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.