Why is it "Mes pieds sont gelés" rather than "Les pieds sont gelés"? I understood that you could use la, le, l' when referring to your own body parts. How can you tell which to use?
Definite article for one's own body parts?
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Rebecca L.Kwiziq community member
Definite article for one's own body parts?
This question relates to:French lesson "Special cases when you use mon/ma/mes/etc with parts of the body (French Possessive Adjectives)"
Asked 2 years ago
In this case, the body part is the subject of the verb, not the object. "Mes pieds sont . . ." - as noted in the lesson, this is one of the 'exceptions' to using definite articles with body parts as per the example pasted below (others being for emphasis or when needed to avoid ambiguity in circumstances such as another person/other people involved - these latter 2 reasons are at the speaker's consideration/discretion) :
"Also, when the body part is the subject of the verb (rather than the object), possessive adjectives are used:
J'ai mal à la tête.My head hurts.BUT
Ma tête me fait mal.My head hurts."CécileKwiziq team member
Hi Rebecca,
Just to add to what Maarten said, you could also say -
J'ai les pieds gelés
or
Mes pieds sont gelés
for, my feet are frozen but it is probably more colloquial.
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