possessives

Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns

Yours, mine and ours. That's what this lesson is all about. Back in you early yeas of studying Spanish you learned "mi" and "tu" an maybe "su". Then you learned "mis", "tus" "sus". Perhaps you even learned "nuestro, nuestra, nuestros and nuestras". Maybe not. This will start at the beginning and will be review at first. Review as needed and learn as you get to new material.

simple forms of possessives:

English	Spanish
my	mis, mis
your (familiar, singular= tú)	tu, tus
his, her, your (formal, singular or plural = Ud., Uds.), their	su, sus
our	nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras
your (familiar, plural = vosotros)	vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, vuestras

As you can see, most of these have only two forms, and agree in number with the noun they are describing- not the owner!!!!

So his book= su libro; their book = su libro; his books = sus libros; their books= sus libros

The words for our and your [vosotros] have four forms and must agree in number and gender with the noun they are describing- again- not the owner.

nuestro coche, nuestra casa, nuestros discos, nuestras sillas.

So how do you know what is being said when someone uses "su" or "sus"? It has so many meanings. Hopefully the conversation will determine the meaning. Ellos no trajeron sus libros hoy. = They didn't bring their books today. In fact, instead of saying "su", quite often an expression using "de + the owner" is often used for clarification. So, if you want to say "his book", you could say "su libro"; but that has many potential meanings, ¿no? So, if you need to clarify, say " el libro de él". (Note: " de + él" does not contract to del.)

Review this information and do a lesson at StudySpanish.com. Send me your test results.

Remember that in Spanish there is no apostrophe, so if you want to state possession by saying, for example, "John's book", you would say "el libro de Juan".

The "Long Form" and Pronouns, and other related stuff

Besides being able to express possession using the basic adjectives you reviewed above, there is a "long form" of the possessive adjective, which can also be used as a pronoun- more about that in a momento. Each of these as you will see has four forms, so they must agree in number and gender with the noun they are modifying, you guessed it- not the owner!

MY= el....(coche) mío, la...(casa) mía, los...(libros) míos, las...(tijeras) mías
YOUR (familiar, singular= tú)= el...tuyo, la...tuya, los...tuyos, las...tuyas
HIS, HER, THEIR, YOUR (formal, singular or plural = Ud., Uds.)= el ...suyo, la ...suya, los...suyos, las...suyas
OUR= el...nuestro, la...nuestra, los...nuestros, las...nuestras
YOUR (familiar plural= vosotros) = el ...vuestro, la...vuestra, los...vuestros, las...vuestras

So, the expression "mi hermana" can also be expressed as "la hermana mía". Likewise, "nuestros libros" can be expressed as "los libros nuestros". There is really no change in meaning, but the long form is more poetic, isn't it? Notice here that the possessive adjective comes after the noun. This is unusual for limiting adjectives, ¿verdad?

Just para practicar...

Change these possessive expressions from the short to the long form.

mi primo
su alegría
nuestro amor
tus vicios
sus deudas
mis caballos
tus ideas
nuestras pinturas
su programa
mi mano
tu libertad
mi agua * ¡buena suerte con ésta!

Go see how you did.

The long form of the adjective is also the pronoun, but you leave out the noun. So "mine" is el mío, la mía, los míos or las mías. And so on for all the others. Let's look at how this might be used. You get to class and you did your homework. You ask your friend if she did hers. Here is how the conversación goes:

Yo hice mi tarea. ¿Hiciste la tuya? > Sí, hice la mía antes de las clases hoy. Do you see how "la tuya" replaced "tu tarea" and therefore is a pronoun? Same with "la mía"?

You can try some of these yourself, just follow the clues. The possessor will be based on the verb form, and the pronoun will replace the noun mentioned in the first clause.

ejemplo: No tengo mis libros. ¿Tienes..........................? (los tuyos)

Me olvidé mi cuaderno. ¿Tienes.............................?
Juan condujo su coche hoy. Yo conduje.........................................
Ellos no trajeron sus discos. Tenemos .........................................
Vimos nuestras pinturas. ¿Viste.............................................?
Acabé con mis quehaceres. Ella no acabó con....................................

See what you know.

Just a few other things...

When the pronoun follows the verb "ser", the article (el, la,los or las) nis dropped. ejemplos: ¿De quién es el coche? Es mío. El cuaderno es nuestro. Aquellos libros son suyos, etc.

Just as the long form of the adjective omitted the noun in order to make the pronoun, we can also do this to form pronouns relating to specific people. Tengo mi libro y también el de Juan. I have my book and also John's. Tengo mis llaves y las de Ud. I have my keys and yours. ¿Dónde están los amigos de Rafael y los de Elena? Where are Rafael's friends and [also] Elena's?

For expressing "whose?", use De quién + ser. For example: Whose book is it? = ¿De quién es el libro? Whose shoes are they? ¿De quién son los zapatos? * Note that "ser" is conjugated to the item.

The relative pronoun "whose" ( The boy whose sister is in my class.....) is expressed by cuyo, cuya, cuyos, cuyas. See the page on Relative Pronouns for further explanation.

Now that you have a chance to gather all this information, ¡Hay que practicarla! Anda a la página de StudySpanish.com and do the activities for possessive pronouns. Of course you should send me your test results!

el primo mío, la alegría suya, el amor nuestro, los vicios tuyos, las deudas suyas, los caballos míos, las ideas suyas, las pinturas nuestras, el programa suyo (did ou remember the "ma,pa,ta" rule?) la mano mía, la libertad tuya, el agua mía (did you get this one? Do you understand it? If not, ask your profesor.)

el tuyo, el mío, los nuestros, las tuyas, los suyos