Unlike English, Spanish has two forms of possessive adjectives, a short form that is used before nouns, and a long form that is used after nouns. Short-form pronouns are explained in another lesson. Following are the long-form possessive adjectives with examples of usage:

As you may have noticed, the short form and long forms of nuestro and vuestro and related pronouns are identical. They differ only as to whether they are used before or after the noun.

Note that the possessive adjectives vary by number and gender. The change is with the nouns they modify, not with the person(s) who own or possess the object.

Es un amigo tuyo. (He is a friend of yours.) Es una amiga tuya. (She is a friend of yours.) Son unos amigos tuyos. (They are some friends of yours.) Son unas amigas tuyas. (They are some friends of yours.)

Choice of possessive form: Generally speaking, there is little or no difference in meaning between the long and short forms of the possessive. Most often, you'd use the long form as the equivalent of "of mine," "of yours," etc., in English, although (as in English) they are usually interchangeable in meaning. The short form is more common, and in some cases, the long form can be somewhat awkward or have a slight "literary" flavor, although it is used in informal speech as well.