10.1 Possessive pronouns


  Possessive pronouns indicate who owns what

That is my house.
This is your steak.
That is his wife.
This is her husband.
That is our car.
These are your friends.
Those are their flowers.


Possessive pronouns have to be in accordance in gender and number with the object. The gender and the number of the subject, which is talked about does not have any influence on the possessive pronoun.

Actually you'll make it correctly when not thinking about it. However, we can have a look at the logic behind it.

Veo vuestra casa. = I see your house.
Veo vuestras casas. = I see your houses.
Doy una nueva fachada a vuestras casas. = I give your houses a new facade.


In English you can differentiate between a female owner and a male owner of something when the phrase is in the third person singular. Spanish doesn't make this difference:

He looks at his wife. = Ve a su mujer.
She looks at her husband. = Ve a su hombre.


The possessive pronouns that we had a look at are in adjectival mode. Adjectival is a possessive pronoun when it is put before the noun. It does what adjectives usually do - they describe the noun to that it is referred.

Veo tu casa. = I see your house.

Sometimes the possessive pronouns substitute a noun. In English the substantival possessive pronouns are

my => mine
your => yours
his, her => his, hers
our => ours
your => yours
their => theirs

  Possessive pronouns in substitution of a noun

Veo la tuya, pero no la mía.= I see yours but not mine.
La nuestra es linda, pero la vuestra es fea. = Ours is beautiful but theirs is ugly.







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