Possessive Adjectives (Short Form)

Possessive adjectives in Spanish, like those of English, are a way of indicating who owns or is in possession of something. Their use is straightforward, although they (like other adjectives) must match the nouns they modify in both number and gender.

Unlike English, Spanish has two forms of possessive adjectives, a short form that is used before nouns, and a long-form possessive adjective that is used after nouns. Here are the short-form possessive adjectives (sometimes known as possessive determiners):

• mi, mis — my — Compra mis libros. (He is buying my books.)
• tu, tus — your (singular familiar) — Quiero comprar tu coche. (I want to buy your car.)
• su, sus — your (singular or plural formal), its, his, her, their — Voy a su oficina. (I am going to his/her/your/their office.)
• nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras — our — Es nuestra casa. (It is our house.)
• vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, vuestras — your (plural familiar) — ¿Dónde están vuestros hijos? (Where are your children?)

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. Thus you would say "his book" and "her book" in the same way: su libro. Some examples:

• Es nuestro coche. (It is our car.)
• Es nuestra casa. (It is our house.)
• Son nuestros coches. (They are our cars.)
• Son nuestras casas. (They are our houses.)

As you might imagine, su and sus can be ambiguous, since they can mean "his," "her," "its," "your" or "their." If the use of su or sus doesn't make the sentence clear, you can use de followed by a prepositional pronoun instead:

• Quiero comprar su casa. (I want to buy his/her/your/their house.)
• Quiero comprar la casa de él. (I want to buy his house.)
• Quiero comprar la casa de ella. (I want to buy her house.)
• Quiero comprar la casa de usted. (I want to buy your house.)
• Quiero comprar la casa de ellos. (I want to buy their house.)

In some areas, de él, de ella and de ellos are preferred over su and sus for saying "his," "her" and "their," even where no ambiguity is present.

Overuse of the possessive adjectives: The possessive adjectives are used in most cases in the same way as they are used in English. However, you should be aware that in many instances — especially when speaking of body parts, clothing and items intimately associated with an individual — Spanish uses the definite article (el, la, los or las), the equivalent of "the," instead of possessive adjectives.

Sam arregla el pelo. (Sam is combing his hair.) Ella juntó las manos para orar. (She joined her hands to pray.) Ricardo rompió los anteojos. (Ricardo broke his glasses.)

Repetition of possessive adjectives: In English, it common to use a single possessive adjective to refer to more than one noun. In Spanish, a single posessive adjective can refer to only one noun, unless the multiple nouns refer to the same persons or objects. For example, "son mis amigos y hermanos" would mean "they are my friends and siblings" (with the friends and the siblings being identical persons), while "son mis amigos y mis hermanos" would mean "they are my friends and siblings" (the friends not being the same people as the siblings). Similarly, "my cats and dogs" would be translated as "mis gatos y mis perros."