Possessive adjectives
![]() In your daily life, you keep track of what's yours and what isn't. You say things like that's my pencil or that's his notebook. In this lesson, you'll learn the Spanish words for my, your, his, her, our, and their.
These words are adjectives because they describe nouns. Remember that
nouns = people, places or things, and
adjectives = words that describe people, places or things.
But these words don't describe what nouns look, sound, smell or taste like. They tell who owns it. Therefore, they're a special kind of adjectives called possessive adjectives: they tell who owns something. Possessive adjectives work for people, too (e.g., her mom).
Watch as Ana and Nina discuss whose phone is on the table.
español N: Ana, ¿puedo usar tu teléfono?
A: No es mi teléfono. Es el teléfono de José.
N: ¿Es de José? Pero pienso que su teléfono es blanco.
A: No, es negro.
N: José, ¿puedo usar tu teléfono?
J: Sí, por supuesto.
English
N: Ana, may I use your phone?
A: It's not my phone. It's José's phone.
N: ¿It's José's? But I think his phone is white.
A: No, it's black.
N: José, can I use your phone?
J: Yes, of course.
List of Possessive adjectives
Watch the video on possessive adjectives.
Notice
The words su and sus can be confusing, since they can mean so many things (his, her, its, your, y'all's, their). So Spanish speakers will often make it clear whom they're talking about:
Lila takes care of the cat. It's her cat.
Lila cuida al gato. Es su gato.
Watch the video on possessive adjectives.
Notice
Neither instructional video covered vuestro (vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, vuestras), which is the most common way to say y'all's in Spain. That's because the teacher who makes these great instructional videos focuses on Latin American Spanish, not Spanish in Spain. The video below includes vuestro.
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