FR: leur / leurs

[lluvioso1]

Hi,

Ils avaient beaucoup de mal à garder un toit au-dessus de leur(s) tête(s).

The context:

Le cordonnier gagnait sa vie en fabriquant de nouvelles chaussures et en les vendant au marché. Malgré tous ses efforts, il n'arrivait pas à gagner assez d'argent avec ce business. Sa femme et le cordonnier, ils avaient beaucoup de mal à garder un toit au-dessus de leur(s) tête(s).


My question is, in the given context, should it be "leur tête" "or leurs têtes" in order that the sentence is grammatically correct?

Thank you.

 

[olivier68]

Here, I would say that both are possible. It's, indeed, a very common question the answer to which is not very clear in many (most?) cases. I, personnally, would use singular but some other people could have a different advice and could prefer plural.

 

[Maître Capello]

I agree with Olivier: both numbers are possible but the singular is more natural in your context as the shoemaker and his wife share the same roof.

P.S.: Sa femme et le cordonnier, ils avaient… is sloppy. It would be better to say, Le cordonnier et sa femme avaient… or simply, Lui et sa femme avaient…