Possessive Pronouns
29 Apr 2018Definition
Mine, yours, his, hers, theirs. Note the distinction between a possessive pronoun and a possessive adjective (e.g., my, your, his, her, their).
Gender and Number
Possessive pronouns have to agree with both the gender and number of the
object owned or possessed, and not the owner. For example, “The girls read the
books of theirs” - Las muchachas leen los libros suyos. Full table:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mío, míos mine | nuestro, nuestros ours |
| mía, mías mine | nuestra, nuestras ours |
| tuyo, tuyos, yours | vuestro, vuestros yours |
| tuya, tuyas, yours | vuestra, vuestras yours |
| suyo, suyos, his, hers, theirs, (formal) yours | suyo, suyos, theirs, (formal) yours |
| suya, suyas, his, hers, theirs, (formal) yours | suya, suyas, theirs, (formal) yours |
In contrast, these are the possessive adjectives. You may have noticed that the first and second person informal plural have the same form as adjective as well as pronoun.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mi, mis my | nuestro, nuestros our |
| nuestra, nuestras our | |
| tu, tus your | vuestro, vuestros your |
| vuestra, vuestras your | |
| su, sus his, her, (formal) your | su, sus their, your |
Possessive Pronouns Following ser
It is the same form as in English. For example, “This book is mine” - Este
libro es mío, “This table is yours” - Esta mesa es tuya.
Possessive Pronouns Expressing “of mine/yours/his/her/ours/theirs”
In English we like to say “a friend of mine” or “an adventure of yours”. In
Spanish, there is no need to insert a de between the object owned and the
possessive pronoun. To say “a friend of mine” it is simply un amigo mío.
Possessive Pronouns in Comparisons
When two things are compared against each other, there are two forms that can be used. The first is the “regular comparison” that ranks the two subjects, i.e., “A is better/worse/taller/shorter than B”. In the second form, two subjects are brought up together but no explicit ranking is drawn. For example, “this house is mine, while that one is yours”, or “I like my house, as well as yours”.
Regular Comparisons
| more … than | más ... que |
| less … than | menos ... que |
| as … as | tan ... como |
Examples:
| My friend is taller than yours | Mi amigo es más alto que el tuyo |
| Their house is less elegant than yours | Su casa es menos elegante que la tuya |
Irregular Comparatives
Unlike English, there are only four irregular comparatives in Spanish. They are:
mejor, mejores better mayor, mayores older
peor, peores worse menor, menores younger
When used with these comparatives, possessive pronouns follow the same rules above.
Comparative Statements
In the second form of comparison possessive pronouns follow the same rules as well. For example:
| Their house is dirty but ours is clean | Su casa está sucia pero la nuestra está limpia |
| Her books are in the kitchen and mine are in the dinning room | Su libros están en la cocina y las míos están en el comedor |