How To Express Possession In Spanish – The Complete Guide

In this lesson, we will talk about the possession in Spanish, how to express it and how to avoid the confusion, followed by examples.

Possessive Adjectives In Spanish

Possessive adjectives are used to indicate to whom or to what a thing/person belongs, and they always come before the owned:

Mi libro – my book

Every personal pronoun has its matching possessive adjective, and the selection of the adjective depends on the gender of the “owned” thing/person, and they must agree in gender and number

Personal Pronouns	Possessive Adjectives (Masc)	Possessive Adjectives (Fem)	English
Yo	mi	mi	My
Tú	tu	tu	Your (singular)
Él	su	su	His
Ella	su	su	Hers
Nosotros	nuestro	nuestra	Our
Vosotros	vuestro	vuestra	Your (plural)
Ellos	su	su	Their
Ellas	su	su	Their (feminine)

Note: to get the plural form, add “s“: mi, mis

Mis libros – my books

If you take a look at the table, you would notice that it’s a bit confusing regarding the “su” thing, try to translate this into English: Su libro

Is it his, hers, its, your or their?

To avoid confusion where it is not clear you can use “de + the matching personal pronoun”

Example: their book – el libro de ellos

Possessive Pronouns In Spanish

We use the possessive pronouns to avoid repetition: este libro no es mi libro -> este no es el mío

Every possessive adjective has its equivalent pronoun

Yo > mi > el mío / la mía	mine
Tú > tu > el tuyo / la tuya	yours
Él/ ella > su > el suyo / la suya	his, hers, its
Nosotros > nuestro / nuestra > el nuestro / la nuestra	ours
Vosotros > vuestro / vuestra > el vuestro / la vuestra	yours
Ellos / ellas > su > el suyo / la suya	theirs

And the plural form:

los míos / las mías	mine
los tuyos / las tuyas	yours
los suyos / las suyas	his, hers, its
los nuestros / las nuestras	ours
los vuestros / las vuestras	yours
los suyos / las suyas	theirs

That was today’s lesson about the possession in Spanish

Continue learning Spanish with us here.

Happy learning