Possessive Adjectives. Los adjetivos posesivos

The Beginner's Guide to Spanish Possessive Adjectives

An anarchist communist friend in Spain tells me that someday we’ll all live together joyously without any concept of private ownership.
What’s mine will be hers, and yours, and theirs, and ours.
So, I asked, does that mean I can send a bunch of squatters to stay in her fabulous beachside apartment?

¡Claro que no! ¡Es mi piso!(Of course not! It’s my apartment!)

Nor, apparently, can I borrow her rooftop tomato plants:

¡Son mis plantas!
(They are my plants!)

So, at least until the revolution brings fierce egalitarianism to Spain, it seems that Spanish possessive adjectives will continue to be useful here. If you want to speak excellent Spanish—and keep capitalist pigs like me from stealing your tomatoes—you’re going to want to study these a bit.
Spanish has a few more forms of possessive adjectives than English does, so be alert. That said, this is a topic that Spanish learners usually master without too much difficulty, though there are a few common mistakes to be aware of that are pointed out later in this post.
This is easy to approach for beginners, but be aware that you’ll be better off if you already know your Spanish pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, etc.), genders and a bit about the present tense before you start.

We’ll discuss long-form Spanish possessive adjectives later in the post, but for beginners, just learning the short forms is quite enough for most purposes.
Possessive Adjectives.

Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership.
mi libro .................... my book
tu pluma .................. your pen
There are five possessive adjectives.
mi
tu
su
nuestro
vuestro
Three possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su) have only two forms, singular and plural.
mi
mis
tu
tus
su
sus
Possessive adjectives agree with the nouns they modify. That is, they agree with the thing
possessed, not the possessor.
mi libro .................... my book
mis libros ................. my books
tu pluma .................. your pen
tus plumas ............... your pens
Mi, tu and su do not have masculine and feminine forms. They stay the same, regardless
of the gender of the nouns they modify.
mi amigo
mi amiga
tus hermanos
tus hermanas
su libro
sus plumas
Mi means “my” ; tu means “your.”
Mi casa es tu casa .............................................. My house is your house.

Su, like tu, can mean “your.” The difference between your (tu) and your (su) lies in the
degree of formality the speaker wishes to convey.
Mi casa es tu casa .... (speaking to someone you would address as “tú”)
Mi casa es su casa .... (speaking to someone you would address as “usted”)
NOTE: The two words “tu” and “tú” are pronounced the same. Tú (with the written accent) is the subject
pronoun meaning “you” (informal). Tu (without the written accent) is the possessive adjective meaning “your”
(informal).
Su has four meanings: his, her, their and your (formal).
María busca a su hermana ................................. María is looking for her sister.
Juan busca a su hermana ................................... Juan is looking for his sister.
Ellos buscan a su hermana ................................. They are looking for their sister.
Su madre busca a su hermana ............................ Your mother is looking for your sister.
If the meaning of su is not clear from the context of the sentence, a prepositional phrase
is used in place of su.
María busca a la hermana de él .......................... María looks for his sister.
El hombre busca las llaves de ella ....................... The man looks for her keys.
María busca el cuaderno de Juan ....................... María looks for Juan’s notebook.
El hombre busca las llaves de Samanta ............... The man looks for Samanta’s keys.
Two possessive adjectives (nuestro and vuestro) have four forms.
nuestro
nuestra
nuestros
nuestras
vuestro
vuestra
vuestros
vuestras
Nuestro means “our.”
nuestro hermano ..... our brother
nuestra hermana ...... our sister
nuestros hermanos ... our brothers
nuestras hermanas ... our sisters
Vuestro means “your” (familiar, plural). Like vosotros, vuestro is primarily used in Spain.
vuestro libro ............. your book
vuestra pluma .......... your pen
vuestros libros .......... your books
vuestras plumas ....... your pens
Here are all of the possessive adjectives:
mi(s) ................................................................... my
tu(s) ................................................................... your (fam. sing.)
su(s) ................................................................... his, her, your (formal), their
nuestro(-a, -os, -as) ............................................ our
vuestro(-a, -os, -as) ............................................. your (fam. pl.)

Usage of Short-form Spanish Possessive Adjectives

The words we learned above are adjectives (describing words) that always go before the noun they’re modifying. Let’s take a look at these adjectives for describing ownership in action.

Examples with short-form Spanish possessive adjectives

Son mis libros.
(These are my books.)

Quiero comprar vuestro coche.
(I want to buy your car.) — Talking to more than one person who own the car, informally.

Nuestro hijo es alto.
(Our son is tall.)

Me gusta tu camisa.
(I like your shirt.) — Speaking to someone informally.

Su papel está aquí.
(His/her/its/their/your (formal) paper is here.)

There are a lot of possible ways to interpret that last sentence, aren’t there? Usually, the meaning is apparent from the context, but if not, there are of course ways to provide more clarity.

Possible confusion with su and how to avoid it

Since su can mean so many things, we’ll sometimes want to avoid that word to make it clear who’s doing the owning. We can do this by using the preposition de, which means “of,” but can be placed after a noun to express ownership.

Es el artículo de Roberta.
(It’s Roberta’s article.)

We can also use subject pronouns instead of “Roberta.” So instead of saying something totally correct but a bit vague, like:

Es su artículo.
(It’s his/her/its/their/your article.)

We can be more precise, if needed:

Es el artículo de ella.
(It’s her article.)

Es el artículo de él.
(It’s his article.)

Es el artículo de ellas.
(It’s their article.) — Owned by a group of all women.

Es el artículo de ustedes.
(It’s your article.) — Talking to more than one person formally.

And so on, with other subject pronouns: de ellos, de usted. This construction also provides more emphasis than just saying “Es su artículo.”

When to avoid Spanish possessive adjectives

The most common mistakes made by English speakers with Spanish possessive adjectives actually involve using them too much!
When you have a reflexive verb, that means that the action in question is already “going back” onto the subject, so you don’t need (and shouldn’t use) a possessive adjective. If I want to inform people that I’m washing my hands, I would not use a possessive adjective as we do in English:

Me lavo mis manos.

Rather, I should say:

Me lavo las manos.(I’m washing my hands.) — Very literally: “I’m washing myself the hands.”

Note that these possessive adjectives are not used with articles of clothing or body parts.
Rather, the definite article is used.
Me gusta el vestido nuevo .................................. I like my new dress
Me duele el brazo .............................................. My arm hurts.

Los posesivos pueden colocarse delante del sustantivo (“Este es mi libro”) o detrás (“Este libro es mío”). En esta entrada vamos a ver sólo los que se colocan delante del sustantivo. Observa el vídeo y después completa las actividades.

En esta entrada vamos a aprender a usar los adjetivos posesivos. Son palabras que indican una relación de pertenencia o de posesión de algo o alguien a un poseedor (yo, tú, él, ella, usted) o a dos o más poseedores (nosotros, nosotras, ustedes…).

Completa las frases con el posesivo como en el ejemplo:
Ej: Su camiseta es azul > Juan tiene una camiseta azul.
1-   bicicleta es nueva. > ​Yo tengo una bicicleta nueva.
2-   tartas son ricas. > ustedes hacen unas tartas muy ricas.
3-   casa es grande. > Nosotros vivimos en una casa grande.
4-   hijos son inteligentes. > Ellos tienes unos hijos inteligentes.
5-   coche es rojo. > Juan tiene un coche rojo.
6-   cartas son muy largas. > María escribe unas cartas muy largas.
7-   vestidos son preciosos. > nosotras llevamos unos vestidos preciosos.
8-   calle es ruidosa. > Yo vivo en una calle ruidosa.
9-   muebles son antiguos. > Nosotros vendemos muebles antiguos.
10-  regalos son caros. > Ustedes siempre regalan cosas caras.
11- canción es bonita. > Tú cantas una canción bonita.
12- poemas son románticos. > Amalia escribe unos poemas muy románticos.
13- corbata es muy elegante. > Usted tiene una corbata muy elegante.
14-  notas son muy buenas. > Los estudiantes sacan unas notas muy buenas.
15- gatos son preciosos. > Yo tengo unos gatos preciosos.