There are several ways for expressing possession, and you will choose between them depending on the context.

In this post, we’ll learn all about the two types of possessive adjectives in Spanish. We’ll also take a quick look at the other common ways of expressing possession in Spanish: by using “de” and by using the Spanish possessive pronouns.

Let’s start with some examples:

• Pedro’s house – La casa de Pedro

• His house – Su casa

• His house – La casa suya

• That house is his. – Esta casa es la suya.

You probably already know the easiest one: using the preposition de. In English the equivalent is ’s, or even of, as in “the house of Pedro.”

The next two examples both use possessive adjectives. We’ll go into both of these forms in detail in the next sections.

The fourth example uses a Spanish possessive pronoun. We’ll look at these once we’ve covered the possessive adjectives.

Possessive Adjectives in Spanish

You’re familiar with all six English possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Possessive adjectives in Spanish are similar, though there are two distinct forms we can use which both have the same effect: short form and long form.

Short form possessive adjectives are placed before the noun. These can be translated literally to their English equivalents.

Long form possessive adjectives are placed after the noun. These words have a different form, but they mean exactly the same thing.

Short form possessive adjectives

These are the Spanish possession words which will seem most familiar to English speakers, since they’re used essentially the same way: just before the object which is possessed.

As with other Spanish adjectives, our possessive adjectives always need to agree with the gender and number of the object they describe. Let’s take a look at all of the short form Spanish possessive adjectives, along with their English equivalents:

Did you notice that most of the forms are the same between masculine and feminine objects? And to go between singular and plural forms, all you need to do is add an s. Easy, right?

The only forms which change to match the gender of the possessed object are when we use nosotros / nosotras or vosotros / vosotras. (Note that the formal plural you “vosotros” is only used in Spain; in Latin America we only use “ustedes.”)

So although this table may make it look like a lot, the whole list of short form possessive adjectives we use in Latin America can be summed up like this: mi(s), tu(s), su(s), nuestro/a(s).

Let’s put this short form in context and see some examples:

• Today I am going to buy my new furniture at the mall. – Hoy voy a comprar mis muebles nuevos en el centro comercial.

• Tomorrow, without fail, we will attend your football game at school. – Mañana sin falta asistiremos a tu juego de fútbol en el colegio.

• You will receive your packages without fail today. – Usted recibirá sus paquetes sin falta el día de hoy.

• We will take our cat and our dogs to the consultation with the veterinarian. – Nosotras llevaremos a nuestra gata y a nuestros perros a la consulta con el veterinario.

• Your garden is spectacular, and there are many colorful flowers. – Vuestro jardín es espectacular y hay muchas flores coloridas.

• They go to visit his apartment on the beach after a year. – Ellos van a visitar su apartamento en la playa después de un año.

Long form possessive adjectives

This set of Spanish possessive adjectives won’t appear as familiar to English speakers, though they can be considered essentially interchangeable with the short form versions we saw in the last section. The main difference with the long form is that they’re placed after the noun they describe, as opposed to before. The meaning remains the same!

Before we see some examples, let’s take a look at the whole table of long form possessive adjectives. Note that, in contrast to the short forms where only the nosotros and vosotros forms were modified to agree with the object’s gender, all of the long form possessive adjectives in Spanish change to agree with both the gender and number of the object.

Since we know these need to agree with gender and number, we can sum up the long form possessive adjectives used in Latin America with this short list: mio/a(s), tuyo/a(s), suyo/a(s), nuestro/a(s).

So how do we use long form possessive adjectives? We just put them right after the noun, and we include a definite article before that noun. (Remember the definite articles are: el, la, los, las.) The meaning is equivalent to the short form versions you’re already familiar with, but we’re able to put the emphasis elsewhere in our sentence. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

• They have to shake their shoes before entering the house. – Ellas tienen que sacudir los zapatos suyos antes de entrar a la casa.

• Our proposals are more profitable than those of the competition. – Las propuestas nuestras son más rentables que las de la competencia.

When do we choose long form over short form possessive adjectives?

As you’ll surely notice in Spanish, the short form possessive adjectives are by far the most common. When you’re learning the language, you can use those familiar ones 100% of the time and get by just fine. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to be aware of the long forms for when you hear them used, and as you progress in the language you can start using them yourself.

As we saw before, you can use short form and long form possessive adjectives interchangeably, and the meaning stays the same. Before we move on, let’s just compare a few example sentences using both forms, which each have exactly the same meaning in English:

• Please, show me your ticket. – Muéstrame su boleto, por favor. – Muéstrame el boleto suyo, por favor.

• My cat is on your roof. – Mi gato está en tu techo. – El gato mío está en el techo tuyo.

• Do you have my keys? – ¿Tienes mis llaves? – ¿Tienes las llaves mías?

You’re probably wondering though, are there some contexts when the long form possessive adjectives are actually a better choice? Yes, in fact, there are. The main use is where we want to put our emphasis. Let’s take that last sentence as an example.

If we’re walking out the door and I want to double check that you have my keys with you, I might ask you “Do you have my keys?” – “¿Tienes mis llaves?” But if you have a big pile of keys, and I’m wondering if mine are among them, I’d ask you “¿Tienes las llaves mías?” I see you have lots of keys, but “do you have my keys?” Both forms are correct in both situations, but the emphasis is different for each context.

If you really want to emphasize whose object is responsible for something, you’ll also choose the long form. We see this frequently in exclamations:

• Your dog dug up my entire garden! – ¡El perro tuyo desenterró todo mi jardín!

• My painting was chosen for the exhibition! – ¡El cuadro mío fue elegido para la exposición!

The Spanish possessive adjective “sendos”

There’s one more possessive adjective in Spanish which doesn’t have an English equivalent. It is known as a distributive adjective, and is only used in the plural. The form agrees with its masculine and feminine objects as sendos and sendas.

When everyone in a group of subjects each has their own objects, we can use sendos to describe this possession. This makes it clear that there are as many possessed objects as possessors, while using just one distributive possessive adjective. Let’s see this in action with a few examples:

• The soldiers went to battle with their machine guns. – Los soldados fueron a la batalla con sendas ametralladoras.
• Los soldados fueron a la batalla con sus ametralladoras.

One way to think of sendos is as meaning each one. In this first case each soldier went to battle, each with his own machine gun. If the whole battalion of soldiers went with a truckload of guns belonging to the battalion as a whole, then in the second case we just use sus ametralladoras to say that the soldiers went with their guns: there’s no link between the number of soldiers and guns.

• The children are reading their books quietly in their bedroom – Los niños están leyendo sendos libros tranquilamente en su dormitorio.
• Los niños están leyendo sus libros tranquilamente en su dormitorio.

In this first example, think of each child, each reading her own book quietly. Sendos tells us that the number of children and books is equal. In the second example the children are still reading their books, but maybe their books are spread all over the floor and they’re looking at all their books together. We say sus libros since there’s no link between the number of children and the number of books.

The important thing to remember with sendos and sendas is that it distributes the possession equally: each possessor has their own possessed object.

Sentence structure with possessive adjectives

We’ve seen the standard usage of both short form and long form possessive adjectives in their respective sections above. The most important details to recall from those are:

1. Short form possessive adjectives are placed before the word they describe, with no article.

2. Long form possessive adjectives are placed after the word they describe, with a definite article placed before the word.

Let’s look at a few other sentence structures when we use possessive adjectives in Spanish.

Long form by itself

This structure is very common, though it’s a bit difficult to explain grammatically, especially since the English translation changes too. The best way to explain it is that we simply omit the second instance of the possessed object. Let’s learn through some examples:

• That car is my car. – Ese carro es el carro mío.

Technically, this sentence is grammatically correct, but the repetition of the possessed object sounds awkward. In this case, we just drop the second instance of the object and leave the possessive adjective by itself. The English translation sounds better too:

• That car is mine. – Ese carro es mío. – (Ese carro es [el carro] mío.)

Does this sentence structure make sense? It may look like a possessive pronoun, especially when we translate it to English, but grammatically, since there is no article, we can tell that it’s a possessive adjective whose object has been omitted. Let’s just see a few more examples:

• These books are yours. – Estos libros son tuyos.

• That house is his. – Esa casa es suya.

• The kittens are ours. – Los gatitos son nuestros.

One from a group: Indefinite article + object + long form possessive adjective

When there’s a group of objects, and we want our possessive adjective to refer to one of the objects in the group, we use an indefinite article before the object, and then the long form possessive adjective. (The indefinite articles are: un, una, unos, unas.)

• A classmate of mine failed his college entrance exam. – Un compañero mío de clase reprobó el examen de admisión para la universidad.

Here the possessed object is one member of a group of high school students. We could also translate the same phrase by saying “One of my classmates…”

• A cousin of hers just got elected to parliament. – Una prima suya acaba de ser elegida para el parlamento.

She has a lot of cousins. One of her cousins just got elected.

Possessive adjectives with other determinants

What order do we use when the object has additional adjectives? What about with other determinants?

With short form possessive adjectives, we just place them first. We otherwise don’t change the usual word order of the other adjectives, which go before or after the noun depending on their own rules:

• I was enchanted by her big blue eyes. – Estaba encantado por sus grandes ojos azules.

• Our charming neighbor gave us his first ripe tomatoes from his giant garden. – Nuestro encantador vecino nos dio sus primeros tomates maduros de su jardín gigante.

Likewise with long form possessive adjectives, the rest of the additional determinants keep their order and the long form just goes at the very end:

• Your broken old bike blocks our only staircase! – ¡La vieja bicicleta rota tuya bloquea la única escalera nuestra!

Reflexive exceptions: Possession without possessive adjectives

An important exception where we don’t use possessive adjectives to express possession, is when people are doing something to themselves. Most of the time you can recognize these cases because they’re involved in actions using the reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nos, se). Let’s see a few examples to see this in action:

• Marisela washes her face. – Marisela se lava la cara.

• I shave my legs every Sunday. – Me afeito las piernas todos los domingos.

In these examples, since the face and the legs are body parts belonging to Marisela and to me, the possession is made clear by the use of the reflexive pronoun along with the verb. Rather than also adding a possessive adjective (we don’t say “Marisela se lava su cara”), we use the definite article: la cara; las piernas.

In addition to body parts, other things which are placed on the body also generally follow this rule. The main category we’re referring to here is clothing, though keep in mind this is just when the clothes are on the body!

• She takes off her socks. – Ella se quita los calcetines.

• He ties his necktie. – Él se anuda la corbata.

• My shoes are by the door. – Mis zapatos están junto a la puerta.

Archaic possessive adjectives

Languages evolve, though sometimes we still see instances of bygone usage. In linguistics, these words and phrases are known as archaic.

Some of the best examples of archaic words that most of us are familiar with come from religious sources, since many of these texts have been preserved unchanged for centuries. There are similar examples in Spanish, so let’s see this special case by examining archaic possessive adjectives in the Lord’s prayer:

In modern English we don’t really use the possessive adjective thy any more, since we no longer use thou as a formal “you.” In Spanish, an archaic equivalent was when the use of possessive adjectives still included an article, as seen in two lines of the example above. Modernization of religious texts means that you’ll rarely even see “santificado sea el tu nombre” anymore, but at least now you’ll recognize this exceptional form when you come across it.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Spanish are the equivalent to the English versions: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs. Pronouns have the function of replacing a noun in a sentence.

In Spanish, the possessive pronouns use exactly the same words as the long form possessive adjectives we saw in that section. Aside from the replacing “adjective” with “pronoun” in this table’s headings, the only difference in its content is the English translations:

We usually use definite articles whenever we use a possessive pronoun. This is best shown with examples:

• This new kitchen has a marble floor, what about yours? Mine has a ceramic floor. – Esta nueva cocina tiene piso de mármol, ¿y la tuya? La mía tiene piso de cerámica.

• In this house, Elena and I have separate rooms. Mine is big and spacious, hers is small and bright. – En esta casa Elena y yo tenemos habitaciones separadas. La mía es grande y espaciosa, la suya es pequeña y luminosa.

• I packed my swimsuit. Did you bring yours? – Empaqué mi traje de baño. ¿Trajiste el tuyo?

• My car is almost out of gas. Can we take yours? – Mi coche está casi sin gasolina. ¿Podemos tomar el tuyo?

• Our neighbors’ house is newer, but ours is nicer. – La casa de nuestros vecinos es más nueva, pero la nuestra es más bonita.

We can use other determinants with possessive pronouns, changing the meaning accordingly:

• Our company is launching several new products, including a few of mine. – Nuestra empresa está lanzando varios productos nuevos, incluidos algunos míos.

• It’s ok if you don’t have any children’s toys here. Our daughter brought these of hers. – Está bien si no tienes juguetes para niños aquí. Nuestra hija trajo estos suyos.

Conclusion

Wow, that was a lot of detail on how to express possession in Spanish. So, let’s do a recap!

We started with a brief mention of the easiest one first: using the preposition de (’s in English).

Then we learned the most common Spanish possessive adjectives, which behave the same way as the English ones: mio/a(s), tuyo/a(s), suyo/a(s), nuestro/a(s). We also learned the distributive possessive adjective: sendos/as.

Then we saw the long form possessive adjectives, which are placed after the object: mio/a(s), tuyo/a(s), suyo/a(s), nuestro/a(s).

At the end, we saw these same words in their use as possessive pronouns.

And throughout, we learned about usage, sentence structure, and exceptions. Whew!

We hope you got a lot out of each section of this post, and that you now feel ready to use and understand all the Spanish possessive adjectives and pronouns! Feel free to share or bookmark this page in case you want to come back to it.

Exercises

If you want to test some of your new knowledge, why don’t you try these exercises. Can you tell whether to use a short form possessive adjective, a long form possessive adjective, or a possessive pronoun?

Don’t forget to use the right form to match the gender and number of the object. The pronoun for the possessor is noted in parentheses for each question. All the responses are below. Good luck!

1. A _____ (yo) mamá le gusta _____ (ella) nuevo grupo de lectura.

– My mom likes her new reading group.

2. Los libros _____ (yo) están llenos de polvo.

– My books are dusty.

3. Aquí están _____ (tú) nuevas cortinas. Espero que te gusten.

– Here are your new curtains. I hope you like them.

4. Las tartas _____ (tú) son deliciosas. No puedo dejar de comerlas.

– Your pies are delicious. I can stop eating them.

5. Señora Sonia, _____ (Ud.) paquetes están listos. Puede retirarlos en la taquilla.

– Mrs. Sonia, your packages are ready. You can pick them up at the box office.

6. Las hijas _____ (él) tocan los instrumentos con destreza.

– Your girls play the instruments skillfully.

7. Eduardo y Aurora no saben si los familiares _____ (ellos) vendrán de visita.

– Eduardo and Aurora don’t know if their relatives will come to visit.

8. Perdí _____ (nosotros) bicicleta. ¡Lo siento!

– I lost our bicycle. Sorry!

9. Carlos compró el mismo modelo de computador que _____ (yo).

– Carlos bought the same computer as mine.

10. _____ (nosotros) primas no vinieron a la fiesta de graduación.

– Our cousins didn’t come to the graduation party.

11. _____ (vosotros) chaquetas no combinan con el nuevo uniforme.

– Your jackets don’t match with the new uniform.

12. Este es el nuevo libro de español. El _____ (yo) lo tiene Ana, y _____ (tú) se lo presté al profesor.

– This is the new Spanish book. Ana has mine, and I lent yours to the professor.

13. _____ (él) mascotas se portan muy bien todo el tiempo.

– Their pets are really well behaved all the time.

14. _____ tía _____ (yo) viene a cuidar de mi papá hoy.

– An aunt of mine is coming to take care of my dad today.

15. _____ colega _____ (ella) fue asignado al nuevo proyecto y ella se siente algo celosa al respecto.

– A colleague of hers was assigned to the new project and she feels a little jealous about it.

Answers

1. A mi mamá le gusta su nuevo grupo de lectura.

– My mom likes her new reading group.

(Short form possessive adjectives)

2. Los libros míos están llenos de polvo.

– My books are dusty.

(Long form possessive adjective)

3. Aquí están tus nuevas cortinas. Espero que te gusten.

– Here are your new curtains. I hope you like them.

(Short form possessive adjective)

4. Las tartas tuyas son deliciosas. No puedo dejar de comerlas.

– Your pies are delicious. I can stop eating them.

(Long form possessive adjective)

5. Señora Sonia, sus paquetes están listos. Puede retirarlos en la taquilla.

– Mrs. Sonia, your packages are ready. You can pick them up at the box office.

(Short form possessive adjective)

6. Las hijas suyas tocan los instrumentos con destreza.

– Your girls play the instruments skillfully.

(Long form possessive adjective)

7. Eduardo y Aurora no saben si los familiares suyos vendrán de visita.

– Eduardo and Aurora don’t know if their relatives will come to visit.

(Long form possessive adjective)

8. Perdí nuestra bicicleta. ¡Lo siento!

– I lost our bicycle. Sorry!

(Short form possessive adjective)

9. Carlos compró el mismo modelo de computador que el mío.

– Carlos bought the same computer as mine.

(Possessive pronoun)

10. Nuestras primas no vinieron a la fiesta de graduación.

– Our cousins didn’t come to the graduation party.

(Short form possessive adjective)

11. Vuestras chaquetas no combinan con el nuevo uniforme.

– Your jackets don’t match with the new uniform.

(Short form possessive adjective)

12. Este es el nuevo libro de español. El mío lo tiene Ana, y el tuyo se lo presté al profesor.

– This is the new Spanish book. Ana has mine, and I lent yours to the professor.

(Possessive pronouns)

13. Sus mascotas se portan muy bien todo el tiempo.

– Their pets are really well behaved all the time.

(Short form possessive adjective)

14. Una tía mía viene a cuidar de mi papá hoy.

– An aunt of mine is coming to take care of my dad today.

(Long form possessive adjective)

15. Un colega suyo fue asignado al nuevo proyecto y ella se siente algo celosa al respecto.

– A colleague of hers was assigned to the new project and she feels a little jealous about it.

(Long form possessive adjective)