BASIC SPANISH: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK

UNIT SIXTEEN

Possessives

Possessive adjectives

In order to indicate the owner of an object or objects, the following possessive adjectives
are used. Notice that they agree with the object(s) owned, not the owner:
my mi/mis
your (tú) tu/tus
his/her/its/your (usted) su/sus
our nuestro/nuestra/nuestros/nuestras
your (vosotros) vuestro/vuestra/vuestros/vuestras
their/your (ustedes) su/sus
my books mis libros
your money tu dinero
his magazines sus revistas
our house nuestra casa
our friends nuestros amigos

e.g.:

their family su familia

As you can see, ‘your’ can be tu(s), su(s) or vuestro(s) depending on whether you are
talking to one person or more than one person and whether you would address the person
(people) with the familiar tú/vosotros or the formal usted/ustedes, hence:
tu amigo your friend (talking to one person you know well)
tus amigos your friends (talking to one person you know well)
vuestro gato your cat (talking to more than one person you know well (i.e. belonging to
vosotros)
vuestras
hijas

your daughters (belonging to vosotros)

su casa your house (talking to one person or more than one person you do not know well)
sus billetes your tickets (talking to one or more than one person you do not know well)

There is no problem with tu and vuestro as long as you remember that the possessive
adjective must agree in number and gender with the object owned and not the owner, but