Possessive Adjectives in Spanish – with audio!

Mine, yours, his, hers… One of the most useful things to learn in a new language is how to express possession.

But, hang on. What does expressing possession really mean?

It means learning how to express that an object belongs to someone. 

Let’s take a look at some examples:

• My dog is big
• Her friends are kind
• These keys are mine

The use of possessive adjectives in Spanish is almost the same as in English. That means you’ll be able to grasp this concept in next to no time. 

Whoopie!

The only difference with Spanish is that the endings of possessive adjectives change depending on the number and gender of the noun. Now, that’s a lot to swallow. So, let’s take a look at an example.

• Mi casa
  My house

• Mis casas
  My houses

Don’t worry if it takes a little while for you to get your teeth into this concept. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to practice in this article.

The Spanish language has two ways of expressing possessive adjectives. They are:

1. A short-form
2. A long-form

But what do the different forms look like? And when should we use them?

I’ll cover both forms of the possessive in this next section. Take a peek!

Related article: The Complete Guide to Spanish Grammar

Short-form of possessive adjectives

To start the ball rolling, we’ll take a look first at the short-form of possessive adjectives. This is the most common way to express possession in Spanish. 

Here is everything you need to know about the short-form of possessive adjectives:

Possessive Adjectives	Singular	Plural
My	Mi	Mis
Your	Tu	Tus
His, Hers, Its, Formal	Su	Sus
Our (Masculine/Feminine)	Nuestro – Nuestra	Nuestros – Nuestras
Their	Su	Sus

Short-form possessive adjectives are always used before the noun.

Note: The possessive adjective changes according to the object that is possessed. This could be its gender and whether the object is singular-plural, not according to the possessor.

Some things are better seen than explained. So, to find out how this works, check out the examples below.

• Our house
  Nuestra casa
  Feminine singular

• Our houses
  Nuestras casas
  Feminine plural

• My car
  Mi carro
  Masculine singular

• My cars
  Mis carros
  Masculine plural

In these examples, “la casa” and “el carro” are the possessed objects. That’s why the possessive adjectives change when the number of houses or cars changes.

This is the first of a couple of weird but wonderful concepts in the Spanish possessive. Take a look at some more examples that will make it easier to understand:

• My dog is small
  Mi perro es pequeño

• Your apples are on the table
  Tus manzanas están en la mesa

• Are they your parents?
  ¿Ellos son tus padres?

• Our school is close to the park
  Nuestra escuela está cerca del parque

• Their house is big and beautiful
  Su casa es grande y bonita

Practice time

Now it’s time for you to have a go.

In this exercise, you’ll need to fill in the blanks with the appropriate possessive adjective in each sentence.

Here’s an example to give you a bit of a head start.

Question:

• My dog is small
  ______ perro es pequeño

Answer:

• Mi perro es pequeño 

Exercise 1: It’s time for you to put your knowledge to the test. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate possessive adjective:

1. My cats are old
   ______ gatos son viejos

2. Are you his brother?
   ¿Tú eres ________ hermano?

3. Their the bikes are new
   __________ bicicletas son nuevas

4. My dress is white and long
   ______ vestido es blanco y largo 

5. Our friends are Peruvian
   __________  amigas son peruanas

Note: The answers are at the end of the article.

Another Way to Express Possession

Another way to express possession in Spanish is by using the word “de” instead of a possessive adjective. This is a slightly stranger concept for us to get our heads around. 

Take a look at this example:

• El perro de ella
  The dog of her
  Her dog

You can use this sentence structure instead of saying:

• Su perro
  Her dog

Structuring your sentences like this does make you feel like you’re speaking like Yoda. But that’s a good thing! This sentence structure may give you a little bit of a headache to begin with. But with a little practice and a couple of language lessons from our favorite Star Wars character, you’ll soon be able to master it.

It doesn’t matter whether you use a possessive adjective or the “de” form to structure your sentences as they have the same meaning. But being confident with both is essential because they are used frequently in Spanish.  

So, let’s break it down further with some more examples. 

• Her dog. (The dog of her)
  Su perro. El perro de ella.

• Their friend. (The friend of them)
  Su amigo. El amigo de ellos.

• Our house. (The house of us)
  La casa nuestra. La casa de nosotros   

Practice time

Now it is your turn to give it a go.

In these exercises, you’ll need to write a sentence using the “de” form to express the possessive.

But don’t worry, I won’t throw you in the deep end. To begin, here’s an example of what you’ll need to do: 

Question:

• Anna’s daughter. (The daughter of Anna)
  Anna, la hija______________________

Answer:

• La hija de Anna

Exercise 2: Fill in the blanks by writing the “de” possession form in the following examples:

1. José’s friend (The friend of José)
   José, el amigo ______________________

2. Our pizza (The pizza of us)
   Nosotros, la pizza ______________________

3. Her house (The house of her)
   Ella, la casa ______________________

4. Maria’s family (The family of Maria)
   Maria, la familia ______________________

Note: The answers are at the end of this article

Now that we’ve got the short-form of possessives under our belt, let’s move on to the long-form.

Long-form possessive adjectives

Long-form possessive adjectives, also called possessive pronouns, are used for three reasons:

1. To emphasize the owner of an object
Example: 

• That notebook is mine
  Ese cuaderno es mío

2. To differentiate one owner from another
Example:

• This cell phone is mine, that is yours
  Este celular es el mío, ese es el tuyo

3. To say which of several objects belongs to the owner
Example:

• The blue bike is my one
  La bicicleta azul es la mía

You should use this when there are several bikes and you want to indicate which one of them is yours.

Long-form possessive adjectives always go after the noun that they describe. 

Spanish possessive pronouns are used less frequently than the short-form. Even still, it is super important that you learn how to recognize them. 

Here’s everything that you need to know about long-form possessive adjectives:

Possessive pronouns	Singular	Singular	Plural	Plural
	Masculine	Femenine	Masculine	Femenine
Mine	Mío	Mía	Míos	Mías
Yours	Tuyo	Tuya	Tuyos	Tuyas
His, Hers, Its, Formal	Suyo	Suya	Suyos	Suyas
Ours	Nuestro	Nuestra	Nuestros	Nuestras
Theirs	Suyo	Suya	Suyos	Suyas

Note: The singular, plural, and gender change according to the object, the same as the short-form possessive adjectives. 

But what does all that mean exactly? 

Take a look at a couple of examples that will show you.

• That notebook is mine
  Ese cuaderno es mío

• Is the red car yours?
  ¿El carro rojo es tuyo?

• This cell phone is yours
  Este celular es suyo

• The food on the table is theirs
  La comida sobre la mesa es suya

• This cell phone is mine, that is yours
  Este celular es el mío, ese es el tuyo

• The red car is mine, the black car is yours
  El carro rojo es el mío, el carro negro es el tuyo

• The table with pizza is our table
  La mesa con la pizza es la nuestra

• The blue bike is my one
  La bicicleta azul es la mía

• The house with the garden is our one
  La casa con jardín es la nuestra

Practice time

In these exercises, you’ll need to fill in the blanks with the appropriate possessive pronoun in each sentence.

Here’s an example to help you:

Question:

• The keys are mine
  Las llaves son _______

Answer:

• Las llaves son mías

Exercise 3: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate possessive pronouns in the following sentences:

1. This apple is yours
   Esta manzana es _____

2. That’s his food
   Esa es la comida ______

3. The blue shoes are my ones
   Los zapatos azules son los _____

4. The small notebooks are our ones
   Los cuadernos pequeños son los ______

5. The big table is our one, the small table is your one
   La mesa grande es la _______, la mesa pequeña es la _____

Note: The answers are at the end of this article.

Exceptions

There are three important exceptions where possessive adjectives are not used in Spanish, even though they would be used in English. These are when the object possessed is one of the following:

1. A body part
2. An abstract concept
3. An indication of implicit ownership

Ok, but what does all that mean and what should you do in these cases? 

Don’t worry, the next section has you covered.

Body Parts

To talk about body parts in Spanish, you just use the definite article and the reflexive verb.
Examples:

• I wash my hands
  Me lavo las manos

• María brushes her teeth
  María se cepilla los dientes

Abstract Concepts

How do we form a sentence if it contains an abstract concept? 

Here is an example:

• She lost her passion for sports
  Ella perdió la pasión por el deporte

Here the word “passion” is an abstract concept, so the possessive is not used.

When ownership is implicit

For this case, let’s start by looking at an example:

• Carlos has something sad in his expression
  Carlos tiene algo triste en la expresión

Here, it’s apparent that we’re talking about Carlos’ expression, it’s implicit. That is why we do not need to use a possessive adjective here.

Final words

The Spanish possessive turns everything you know about structuring sentences upside down. After reading this guide, you may feel like you’ve had your brain doing roly-polys. But with some more practice, this strange sentence structure soon will become the new normal.

Check out our series of Complete Spanish Grammar articles – everything you’ll ever need to know about Spanish grammar.

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Answers

Here are the answers to all the exercises of short and long-forms of the Spanish possessive adjectives.

Exercise 1:

1. My cats are old
Mis gatos son viejos

2. Are you his brother?
¿Tú eres su hermano?

3. Their the bikes are new
Sus bicicletas son nuevas

4. My dress is white and long
Mi vestido es blanco y largo

5. Our friends are Peruvian
Nuestras amigas son peruanas

Exercise 2:

1. José’s friend (The friend of José)
El amigo de José

2. Our pizza (The pizza of us)
La pizza de nosotros

3. Her house (The house of her)
La casa de ella

4. Maria’s family (The family of Maria)
La familia de Maria

Exercise 3:

1. This apple is yours
Esta manzana es la tuya

2. That’s his food
Esa es la comida suya

3. The blue shoes are the mine
Los zapatos azules son los míos

4. The small notebooks are ours.
Los cuadernos pequeños son los nuestros

5. The big table is ours , the small table is yours.
La mesa grande es la nuestra, la mesa pequeña es la suya

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