Adjectives — Possessive Adjectives

Adjectives — Possessive Adjectives

Possessive Adjectives Defined

The English way of expressing possession by apostrophe s, is not used in Spanish. Instead, forms comparable to the other English style, are used. This is expressed in Spanish by the use of the preposition de placed before the possessor.

The girl's book.	El libro de la muchacha.
The book of the girl.
Mary's pencils.	Los lápices de Mary.
The pencils of Mary.
The boys' home.	La casa de los muchachos.
The home of the boys.

Spanish has two different sets of possessive adjectives: those which regularly stand before a noun, mi amigo (my friend), and those which follow the noun un profesor mío (a professor of mine).

The adjectives that precede the noun are simpler and are more commonly used. However, the second form must be used in such expressions as amigo mío (a friend of mine) when one is speaking directly to the person in question, and also in expressing of mine, etc.

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Possessive adjectives that precede Nouns

	singular	plural
my	mi	mis
your (familiar)	tu	tus
his, her, its; your (formal)	su	sus
our	nuestro, -a	nuestros, -as
your (familiar)	vuestro, -a	vuestros, -as
their, your (formal)	su	sus

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AGREEMENT

The English possessive adjectives have the same form in the singular and plural: my letter, my letters.

In Spanish the possessive adjectives agree in gender and number with the thing possessed and not with the possessor.

mi sombrero (my hat)	mis sombreros (my hats)
mi pluma (my pen)	mis plumas (my pens)
nuestra casa (our house)	nuestras casas (our houses)
nuestro tío (our uncle)	nuestros tíos (our uncles)
su primo (your cousin)	sus primos (your cousins)
su prima (your cousin)	sus primas (your cousins)

The possessive is repeated before each noun in a series:

Carlos tiene mi libro y mi pluma.
Carlos has my book and pen.

Nuestra pluma y nuestro lápiz están en la mesa.
Our pen and pencil are on the table.

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SU (SUS) AND AMBIGUITY

Since su and sus may mean his, her, your, its, or their, in order to prevent ambiguity, it is often necessary to use the preposition de and the proper prepositional pronoun after the object possessed. When the prepositional pronoun is used for clarity, the definite article is generally substituted for the possessive adjective.

Either form is correct, but the use of the definite article is preferable:

Su casa	Your house
La casa de Ud.	Your house
Sus libros	His books
Los libros de él	His books
Su tía	Their aunt
La tía de ellos	Their aunt
Sus tías	His aunts
Las tías de él	His aunts

In the first two sentences below, the possessor has already been given in the sentence and no ambiguity exists. In the third sentence, John has the book of ella, another person; therefore, it is necessary to explain the sentence further with the prepositional phrase de ella.

John tiene su libro.
John has his book.

Ella tiene su pluma.
She has her pen.

John tiene el libro de ella.
John has her book.

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WITH PARTS OF THE BODY

When reference is made to parts of the body or to articles of clothing, the definite article is used (rather than the possessive adjective, as in English), provided the possessor is clearly indicated.

Lávese Ud. las orejas.
Wash your ears.

El hombre se pone el abrigo.
The man puts on his overcoat.

Me duelen los pies.
My feet ache.

The possessive adjective is used with parts of the body and articles of clothing, however, when clarity requires it. In the following sentence, for example, the ownership to be expressed would not be clear without nuestros.

Nuestros zapatos son nuevos.
Our shoes are new.

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PLACEMENT AFTER NOUNS

There are several cases in which the possessive adjective follows the noun.

1. In expressions of direct address, for endearment or emphasis:

Padre mío ¿cómo estás hoy?
My dear father, how are you today?

Diego, éste es el reloj tuyo.
Diego, this is your watch.

2. In expressions such as of mine, of yours, of ours, etc.:

Un amigo mío llegó ayer.
A friend of mine arrived yesterday.

Algunos profesores nuestros asistieron a la conferencia.
Some professors of ours attended the lecture.

When used in this way, the possessive adjective takes the form of a possessive pronoun, but without the definite article.