Possessives are words that show something belongs to someone. They can be used as adjectives or pronouns. Here, we’ll talk about possessive adjectives.
Possessive adjectives come before a noun. Some examples of possessive adjectives are my, his and their. For example, we say “his house” to show that the house belongs to him.
SPANISH POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
1. In Spanish, the following possessive adjectives have only two forms, singular and plural:
| ESPAÑOL | ENGLISH |
|---|---|
| mi/mis | my |
| tu/tus | your (singular informal) |
| su/sus | your (singular formal) |
| su/sus | his-her |
| su/sus | your (plural) |
| su/sus | their |
EXAMPLES:
mi libro (my book)
mis libros (my books)
tu perro (your dog)
tus perros (your dogs)
SU… IT’S SO AMBIGUOUS!
Although su can mean his, her, their, or your (singular formal and plural), the exact meaning is usually clear from the context of the sentence. Example:
Pepe está buscando su teléfono.
Pepe is looking for his phone.
However, if the meaning is not clear from the context of the sentence, a prepositional phrase is used:
Pepe está buscando el teléfono de él.
2. In Spanish, the possessive adjective for nosotros has four forms:
We have 4 ways to say our in Spanish, dependign of the following noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. Let’s se it quickly with a few examples:
MASCULINE SINGULAR:
OUR BOOK = NUESTRO LIBRO
FEMININE SINGULAR:
OUR HOUSE = NUESTRA CASA
MASCULINE PLURAL
OUR BOOKS = NUESTROS LIBROS
FEMININE PLURAL
OUR HOUSES = NUESTRAS CASAS
Now, let’s play this game!
