Possessive Adjectives

Adjetivos posesivos

Possessive adjectives are the words used in place of articles to indicate to whom or to what something belongs. Their usage is similar to English, but there are some differences in form.

In Spanish there are different forms of possessive adjectives depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural. There are also two different sets of possessive adjectives: short/unstressed forms (explained here) and long / stressed forms.

Short forms of Spanish possessives

		Singular		Plural
		masc	fem	masc	fem
my		mi	mi	mis	mis
your (tú)		tu	tu	tus	tus
his, her, your (Ud.)		su	su	sus	sus
our		nuestro	nuestra	nuestros	nuestras
your (vosotros)		vuestro	vuestra	vuestros	vuestras
				sus	su
their, your (Uds.)		su	su

Spanish has many more possessives than English. For 2nd and 3rd person plural subjects (nosotros, vosotros), there are four forms of the possessive. The gender and number of the noun possessed determine which form to use.

		Our	Your
masc sing		nuestro libro	vuestro libro
fem sing		nuestra mesa	vuestra mesas
masc plural		nuestros libros	vuestros libros
fem plural		nuestras mesas	vuestras mesas

Singular subjects (I, you, he) and third person plural (they) have only two forms: singular and plural.

		My	Your	His / Her / Their
sing:		mi libro	tu libro	su libro
plural:		mis mesas	tus mesas	sus mesas

An important difference between Spanish and English is in the third person. In English you have to choose between his, her, its, and their, whereas in Spanish there is no distinction by gender, only by number. Su and sus can each mean his, her, its, your, or their depending on the context.

Por ejemplo …

Su cama can mean his bed, her bed, its bed (e.g., the dog’s), your bed, or their bed. To clarify, you can use the possessive de.

Tengo su libro.
¿De quién?
El libro de Ana.

When describing two or more nouns, a possessive adjective must be used in front of each one.

his brother and sister

su hermano y su hermana

Test: Possessive adjectives

Related lessons

• Possessive de
• Long possessive forms
• Spanish possession
• Adjectives
   

 Spanish lesson plans

• Possessive Adjectives (Worksheet, 8th-9th grade)
• Possessive Adjectives (Worksheet, 9th-10th grade)
• Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns (PPT, 6th-12th grade)
• Silly Family Trees (Worksheet, 9th-10th grade)
   

 En français

• Adjectifs possessifs