Spanish Possessive Adjectives: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Imagine a world where you couldn’t talk about what’s mine, yours, ours, or theirs. It would be hard, right?

This is why possessive adjectives are so important, and it’s no different in Spanish!

Spanish has a few more forms of possessive adjectives than English, so brush up on your Spanish pronouns and genders and we can get started!

Contents

• What Are Possessive Adjectives?
• Spanish Possessive Adjectives
• Notes on Spanish Possessive Adjectives
• • When to Avoid Possessive Adjectives
  • Repeating Possessive Adjectives
  • Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns
  • Showing Possession in Other Ways
• Spanish Possessive Adjective Quiz

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What Are Possessive Adjectives?

Possessive adjectives, as the name suggests, are adjectives which are used to show who has possession of something.

The words “my,” “your,” “our,” “their,” etc. are all English possessive adjectives that show who something belongs to:

Where are my keys?

Let’s go to their house.

Spanish possessive adjectives work similarly, with a few key differences in how they’re formed.

Spanish Possessive Adjectives

Here are the different short-form Spanish possessive adjectives. Note that to make a singular adjective plural, you simply add s.

As you can see in the table, mi and tu as possessive adjectives don’t have accent marks. If you add accent marks to these adjectives, you would end up with different words: mí which means “for me,” and tú which means “you.”

Mi, tu and su do not change for gender, so “his,” “her,” “their,” formal “your” and “its” are all the same word in Spanish: su.

Also remember that possessive adjectives are based on the gender and the number of the thing being owned, not the people who own it. For example: 

Nuestro teléfono — Our telephone

Vuestra casa — Your house

If a possessive adjective is plural, it means multiple things are owned, not that multiple people own it.   

Here are some examples of how short-form possessive adjectives are used, keeping in mind that they always come before a noun:

Son mis libros — These are my books

Nuestro hijo es alto — Our son is tall

Me gusta tu camisa — I like your shirt 

Long-form Spanish Possessive Adjectives

Long-form Spanish possessive adjectives are, for the most part, reserved for things like older literature, poems, or songs.

No one really uses this form in everyday speech nowadays. One exception would this sentence structure, similar to “[relationship] of [possessive]” in English:

• Un amigo mío vive aquí — A friend of mine lives here
• Me encontré a un conocido tuyo — I ran into an acquaintance of yours
• ¡Madre mía! — Good heavens! (literally “Mother of mine!”)
• Amigo mío, fue un placer verte — My dear friend (literally “friend of mine”), it was a pleasure to meet you

Unlike short-form possessive adjectives, long-form possessive adjectives are used after nouns. They also modify based on the gender and number of the thing being possessed:

Notes on Spanish Possessive Adjectives

When to Avoid Possessive Adjectives

The most common mistakes made by English speakers with Spanish possessive adjectives actually involve using them too much!

Here are some situations not to use possessive adjectives:

• When you have a reflexive verb. If the action in question is already “going back” onto the subject (as with a reflexive verb) you don’t need a possessive adjective.

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

• When talking about body parts. Don’t use possessive adjectives if you’re talking about parts of the body. Instead, use the definite article.

Se rompió la pierna — She broke her leg (literally: she broke herself the leg)  

• If it’s not followed by a noun. In this case, you probably need a possessive pronoun instead.

¡Todo lo que ves aquí es mío! — Everything you see here is mine! 

• If ownership is obvious. If it’s clear what (or who) belongs to who, there’s no need for a possessive adjective. For example, if you’ve already mentioned that something belongs to you, or it can easily be assumed from the context.

Voy a ir al hotel — I’m going to go to my hotel (literally: I’m going to go to the hotel) 

Repeating Possessive Adjectives

In Spanish you generally repeat the possessive adjectives when talking about more than one object that’s owned—in contrast to in English, where one possessive adjective is usually enough.

Son mis lápices y mis cuadernos — They are my pencils and my notebooks

The exception to this is when you’re using two nouns to describe the same actual thing.

Es mi amante y mejor amigo — He is my lover and best friend (talking about a single amazing person who fulfills these two functions)

Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns

It can be pretty easy to get mixed up between possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in Spanish. 

The simplest way to remember the difference is to recognize that possessive adjectives describe nouns, whereas pronouns completely replace them. 

For example:

Mi gato es negro — My cat is black

El gato negro es mío — The black cat is mine

Note that the first sentence uses a possessive adjective (my cat) and the second sentence uses a possessive pronoun (the cat is mine). 

If you want to know more about possessive pronouns, check out this post.

Showing Possession in Other Ways

Although possessive adjectives are probably the most straightforward way to demonstrate possession, they are not the only way that you can do this. 

Showing Possession with Possessive Pronouns

As we already touched on, we can use possessive pronouns to show possession.

Note that the possessive pronouns are the same as the long-form possessive adjectives and have similar meanings.

Possessive pronoun: Ese perro es mío — That dog is mine 

Long-form pronoun: Es un amigo nuestro — He’s a friend of ours 

Showing Possession with De

Another way we can express possession is with the preposition de, which means “of,” but can be placed after a noun to express ownership.

This especially comes in handy where we’d usually use su, as it can be difficult to determine who exactly that word is talking about.

Here are some examples:

Es el artículo de Roberta — It’s Roberta’s article

Es el artículo de ella — It’s her article

Es el artículo de ustedes — It’s your article 

If you want to see how possessive adjectives are used, you can try exposing yourself to Spanish conversation or media to watch how natives incorporate this element into their speech. 

FluentU is a great resource for this as the program uses native video clips from movies, TV shows, etc. to show you how Spanish-speaking natives demonstrate possession.

You’ll even find tools like flashcards, interactive subtitles and flashcards to boost your learning. The program is offered on both iOS and Android. 

Spanish Possessive Adjective Quiz

Now here’s your chance to put everything we’ve learned into practice! 

Fill in the bold sections with the correct Spanish possessive adjective, according to who is in possession and what they’re in possession of—i.e. the number (and in some cases, gender) of the object. 

1. ¿Quieres venir a my casa en la tarde? (Do you want to come to my house in the afternoon?)

2. Él ama mucho a his novio. (He loves his boyfriend a lot.)

3. No es our problema. (It’s not our problem.)

4. Usted debe llamar a her jefe. (You should call her boss.)

5. ¿Qué pasó con your (informal) solicitud? (What happened with your application?)

6. No entiendo your (formal) acciones. (I don’t understand your actions.)

7. Extraño a our hijas. (I miss our daughters.)

8. ¿Has visto my lentes? (Have you seen my glasses?)

9. Confío en your palabras. (I trust your words.)

10. Me caen bien her amigos. (I like her friends.)

Answers:

1. ¿Quieres venir a mi casa en la tarde? 
2. Él ama mucho a su novio.
3. No es nuestro problema. (Remember that problema is masculine!)
4. Usted debe llamar a su jefe.
5. ¿Qué pasó con tu solicitud? 
6. No entiendo sus acciones. 
7. Extraño a nuestras hijas. 
8. ¿Has visto mis lentes? 
9. Confío en tus palabras. 
10. Me caen bien sus amigos. 

And that’s it folks!

I’m guessing you feel possessive over a few things in your life as well; now you should have the vocabulary to say so!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)