Possessives in Spanish always express possession or belonging, they tell who the “owner” is, and agree with the noun (whatever is owned) in gender and number. They’re used mainly as adjectives and have two forms: long and short. But did you know that possessives can also work on their own? If you’re curious about Spanish possessives, keep reading!
Possessive adjectives in Spanish
Possessive adjectives are words like mi meaning my, tu meaning your, and su meaning his or her, and they are used to indicate possession or relationship. Just as with other adjectives in Spanish, they must agree in gender and number with whatever is owned.
There are two types of possessive adjectives in Spanish, they are short and long. Let’s see what these are about.
Short possessive adjectives
Imagine you’re planning a weekend away with your best friend. You’re packing your bags and you’re checking what each of you is taking:
The words mi and mis are possessive adjectives. Can you tell the difference between them? One form is singular (mi) and the other one is plural (mis): they both agree with the noun right after them!
As you can see, short possessive adjectives are one word only and they’re always placed before the noun they modify. Let’s see the rest of them in the following table:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
mi | mis | my |
tu | tus | your |
su | sus | her, his, your, its |
nuestro, nuestra | nuestros, nuestras | our |
*vuestro, vuestra | *vuestros, vuestras | your |
su | sus | their, your |
Let’s continue with the weekend planning:
Notice that most possessive adjectives only have two forms: singular and plural. But for nuestro and vuestro, we also have feminine forms in both singular and plural.
Now, look at the table again. What can you say about the case of the possessive adjective su and sus for the third-person singular? In English, we have different possessive adjectives: “her,” “his,” and “its.” But in Spanish, we have no such distinction! In this case, my friend, you’ll need to rely on context to determine the person it refers to:
There are other ways to clarify or emphasize the gender of the owner. Check out “How to talk about possession in Spanish” and you’ll see what I’m talking about!
Long possessive adjectives
Even though short possessive adjectives are a lot more common than long ones, this type of possessive adjective is very useful when we’re contrasting one possessor with another or putting emphasis on who the possessor is.
Let’s go back to our weekend getaway planning! Your friend says this:
As you can see, long possessive adjectives are placed after the noun they modify — and NOT before, like the short forms — and they also consist of one word only.
Let’s see the rest of the forms and their English equivalents in the following table:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
mío, mía | míos, mías | mine |
tuyo, tuya | tuyos, tuyas | yours |
suyo, suya | suyos, suyas | hers, his, yours, its |
nuestro, nuestra | nuestros, nuestras | ours |
vuestro, vuestra | vuestros, vuestras | yours |
suyo, suya | suyos, suyas | theirs, yours |
What difference can you see between short and long possessive adjectives? If your answer was that all long forms have a masculine, a feminine, and their corresponding plural forms, you’re correct! Let’s continue packing:
Now, when do we use short or long possessive adjectives? To answer this, we have created this cheat-sheet with different cases and examples for each.
Possessive pronouns in Spanish
Possessive pronouns are also words used to indicate possession. The difference from possessive adjectives is that, since they’re pronouns, they replace the nouns previously mentioned. If you remember long possessive adjectives, then you’re one step closer towards mastering possessive pronouns: they’re the same! All you need to add is a definite article (el, la, los, las) before. Let’s see this in detail:
I’m sure you noticed what happened there. In the first part of the example, we used a short possessive adjective mi and a noun (traje de baño meaning bathing suit). In the second part, we used the definite article el and a possessive pronoun to avoid repeating the noun again: we replaced the noun that had been already mentioned. In this particular example, we used el mío and el tuyo because the noun we’re replacing (traje de baño) is masculine.
These pronouns are also very useful when answering questions:
To sum up
Today we learned the differences between possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in Spanish. Here’s a summary for you:
| Use & form | Short possessive adjectives | Long possessive adjectives | Possessive pronouns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use | shows ownership and is placed before the noun it modifies | shows ownership and is placed after the noun it modifies | replaces the noun previously mentioned and is used with definite articles |
| Forms | every form has a singular and plural, but only the forms for nosotros and vosotros have masculine and feminine | every form has masculine, feminine, and plural | every form has masculine, feminine, and plural |
To help you practice possessives in Spanish, we have created this exercise for you. Happy learning!
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