Severn Spanish

Possessive adjectives I

 

Introduction

Indicating possession in Spanish is fairly similar to how you do it in English. In each language, there is a set of special adjectives called possessive adjectives, which indicate ownership of a thing. In English, examples of possessive adjectives include, "my," "your," "his/her," "our," and "their."

 

Possessives and Placement

Possessive adjectives are somewhat unique among Spanish adjectives because they are placed before their nouns (remember that most Spanish adjectives come after their nouns). The following are the Spanish possessive adjectives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a few important things to note about the possessive adjectives.

1. They are adjectives, not pronouns. This means that they agree with the thing they describe -- the object(s) possessed -- NOT the person(s) in possession. For instance, if one man owns five dogs, you say, sus perros, NOT su perros, because the adjective must be plural to match the plural noun, perros. This applies to gender, too: Nosotras compramos nuestro auto, or "We buy our car." Notice that the possessive adjective, nuestro, is masculine to agree with auto, even though the subject of the sentences, nosotras, is feminine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Nuestro/nuestra and vuestro/vuestra are the only possessive adjectives that change for gender. The rest only reflect number.

3. The possessive adjective for él, ella, usted, ellos, ellas, and ustedes is the same (su). This means that, to avoid confusion, you can use de to indicate possession.

Scenario 1:

¿De quién es el perro? ("Whose dog?")

Es su perro. ("It is his/her/your dog." But there are five people standing around. It could be any of theirs, based on this answer.)

 

Scenario 2:

¿De quién es el perro? ("Whose dog?")

Es el perro de Marta. ("It's Marta's dog." No confusion.)

 

Practice