Today we’ll discover how to use the adjective propre in French, which can mean both “clean” and “own” depending on its placement in relation to the noun.
propre
clean, own
Example sentences
When propre precedes the noun, it means “own”. For example, mon propre vélo (my own bike). For this first sentence, the possessive adjective sa can mean both “his” and “her”, depending on the gender of the noun that’s being possessed.
Nicolas a sa propre voiture. Elle est toute neuve et très belle !
Nicolas has his own car. It’s brand new and very beautiful!
When propre appears after the noun it means “clean”. La in this sentence is a direct object pronoun meaning “it”.
Nicolas conduit une voiture propre. Il la nettoie tout le temps.
Nicolas drives a clean car. He cleans it all the time.
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