Spanish Possessive Pronouns: Chart & Sentences

Spanish possessive pronouns are words used to talk about the things that belong to us or to other people. They are very useful in daily conversations in the language and very easy to use as well. This lesson will introduce a list of these pronouns and more importantly, you will read and listen to sentences with possessive pronouns in Spanish. By the end of the lesson, we hope that you can talk about your possessions in the language. Let’s start…

What are Spanish possessive pronouns?

Spanish possessive pronouns or LOS PRONOMBRES POSESIVOS are words like “Tuyo” (yours) and “mío” (mine) that are used to talk about the things we own. Each possessive pronoun is linked to a subject pronoun in a certain way, for example: Yo – Mío, Tú – Tuyo and so on.

Possessive pronouns in Spanish Chart examples and quiz

As shown in the picture, it all depends on how many owners the object has and the grammatical persons, that is: first person (Yo, nosotros), second person (tú/vos/vosotros) and third person (él, ella, ellos, ustedes). Let’s discuss how to use these pronouns below.

Spanish Possessive Pronouns vs Possessive Adjectives

Spanish possessive adjectives will always be placed before the noun they modify, just like this: “Mi amigo“. On the other hand, Spanish possessive pronouns will be placed after the main verb in the sentence, just like this:

Possessive adjective: “Mi amigo vive en México”. (My friend lives in Mexico)
Possessive pronoun: “El carro es mío y el perro es tuyo.” (The car is mine and the dog is yours.)

In the last sentence, both MÍO and TUYO are possessive pronouns, which were placed after the irregular verb SER, something that cannot be done with possessive adjectives like “su, tu, mi”. Another difference is that possessive pronouns are often used after definite articles (El mío/La nuestra…) as a reference to an object or person that was mentioned before, for example:

“Su marido es guapo. El mío también” (Her husband is handsome. Mine too.)
“Su proyecto ganó el segundo lugar y el nuestro ganó el primero.” (Their project won second place and ours won first.)

Gender and number of possessive pronouns

Spanish possessive pronouns are also affected by the rules of grammatical number (plural and singular) and noun gender, which is why their form must agree in plural/singular form as well as masculine/singular form with the noun they refer to. The chart below will help you decide which Spanish possessive pronoun to use for the things you need to refer to. For a feminine, plural noun like “rosas”, you could use the pronouns in the last column, to make sentences like this one: “Las rosas son tuyas” (The roses are yours).

*M = Masculine / F = Feminine

English	One/M	Many/M	One/F	Many/F
Mine	Mío	Míos	Mía	Mías
Yours	Tuyo	Tuyos	Tuya	Tuyas
His, hers, its, yours	Suyo	Suyos	Suya	Suyas
Ours	Nuestro	Nuestros	Nuestra	Nuestras
Yours	Suyo/ Vuestro	Suyos/ Vuestro	Suya/ Vuestra	Suyas/ Vuestras
Theirs	Suyo	Suyos	Suya	Suyas

As you can see, making the possessive pronoun agree with the subject or owner of the objects is essential. For instance, in the sensente “El carro es mío“, CARRO is a masculine, singular noun, so we need a pronoun with the same features, that is MÍO (mine), SUYO (your) or any other in the first column above. On the other hand, if we were talking about several cars, then MÍOS or SUYOS should be used as in “Los carros son míos“. Consequently, we would use MÍA for a singular, feminine noun like CASA (house) as in “La casa es mía”, and following the same pattern MÍAS would be used for several houses as in “Las casas son mías”.

Libro (singular/masculino) – Ese libro es tuyo. (That book is yours)
Osos (plural/masculino) – Esos osos de pelucho son nuestros. (Those teddy bears are ours)
Manzana (singular/femenino) – Esta es mi manzana. La tuya está ahí. (This is my apple. Yours is there.)
Botas (plural/femenino) – Las botas en la entrada son suyas. (The books on the entrance are yours.)

Using Spanish possessive pronouns in sentences

Spanish possessive pronouns are normally used after the irregular verb SER and sometimes directly after definite articles (el, la, los). An easy way to remember these pronouns is by memorizing the ones in singular, masculine form in the chart above, such as MÍO, TUYO and so on. After that, you just need to add -S or change the ending to -A to make the pronoun feminine. Here are some sentences with this basic change in sentences:

El perro dálmata es mío. (The Dalmatian dog is mine.)
Los perros de esta foto son míos. (The dogs in this photo are mine.)
La perra que está mordiendo ese hueso es mía. (The bitch that’s biting that bone is mine.)
Las perras que están corriendo en el patio son mías. (The dogs that are running in the yard are mine.)

Remember that not all nouns can be changed to feminine, nor do all nouns have a plural form in Spanish. For example, the word TELÉFONO (phone) does not have a feminine form, so you could only use masculine pronouns.

Sentences using possessive pronouns in Spanish

It is time to read and listen to more examples of sentences with Spanish possessive pronouns, following the rules explained above. Once you check the examples, make sure to practice with the grammar quiz at the end of the lesson.