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GRAMMAR INDEX

Spanish Grammar A1 ⮟
Ser and Estar in Spanish for Beginners
Está and Hay in Spanish to Express Location
The Present Indicative in Spanish
The verb querer in Spanish: how to use it
The Verb Gustar in Spanish
Demonstratives in Spanish and Adverbs of Place
Possessive Adjectives in Spanish
The Present Continuous in Spanish: Estar + Gerund
The Gerund in Spanish: Form and Basic Uses
Expressions of Quantity in Spanish: Muy and Mucho
Spanish Grammar A2 ⮟
Present Perfect Indicative in Spanish
The Past Simple in Spanish
The Preterite Imperfect Indicative in Spanish
Indicative past tenses in Spanish
How to Express Future in Spanish
How to use por and para in Spanish
Possessive Pronouns in Spanish
Comparative Adjectives in Spanish
Ya in Spanish: Meaning and Usage
Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish
Expressing Obligation in Spanish
Spanish Grammar B1 ⮟
The Pluperfect Indicative in Spanish
The Future Simple in Spanish
The Conditional Simple in Spanish
The imperative mood in Spanish
The present subjunctive in Spanish
Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish
General Rules of Accentuation in Spanish
Expressing Wishes with the Subjunctive in Spanish
The Use of Cuando with Indicative and Subjunctive
Position of Object Pronouns in Spanish
Spanish Grammar B2 ⮟
Advanced Uses of Conditional Simple
The Future Perfect in Spanish
The Conditional Perfect in Spanish
Present Perfect Subjunctive in Spanish
How do I use the past imperfect subjunctive?
The Pluperfect Subjunctive in Spanish
How to express probability in Spanish
Conditional Clauses in Spanish
Verbs of Change in Spanish
Reported Speech in Spanish
Spanish Grammar C1 ⮟
The passive Voice in Spanish
Adverbial Clauses of Manner in Spanish
Adverbial Clauses of Cause in Spanish
Clauses of Purpose in Spanish
Conditional Conjunctions in Spanish
Uses of the Pronoun SE with Syntactic Function
Uses of the Pronoun Se as a Verb Mark
The Indeterminate Feminine in Spanish

Possessive Pronouns in Spanish

Possessive pronouns in Spanish replace a noun that is the property of another. They also refer to the owner.

In this article we are going deeper into the use of possessives. If you want to know the basics, we invite you to read this article about possessive determiners in Spanish.

As we explained in the previous article, possessives have atonic and tonic forms. Well, all possessive pronouns in Spanish have a tonic form. We remind you that the only tonic determiners are nuestro and vuestro with their gender and number variants.

 

 

The Tonic Forms of Possessives

In the following table you can see the tonic possessives. Like the atonic possessives, they are also divided into one possessor and several possessors, in addition to the verbal persons.

The forms above can be used for both tonic determiners and possessive pronouns in Spanish.

Chart about the forms of the possessive pronouns in Spanish

Characteristics of Spanish Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Spanish are usually preceded by a definite article (el, la, los, las). We use them for different purposes. We can show contrast between two elements, usually in comparisons:

Aquí están nuestros coches. El mío es más barato que el tuyo.

We can also select an element from a set:

—¿En qué casa prefieres hacer la fiesta?

—En la mía.

However, when we ask for the owner of a possession, in the answer we can eliminate the article:

—¿De quién es esta pelota?

Mía / Es mía / Es la mía.

Characteristics and Restrictions of Possessive Determiners

Let’s go back to possessive determiners. We have already learned that the atonic determiners (mi, tu, su) can only be placed in front of the noun. On the other hand, the tonic ones allow their use postposing them to the noun. This option is more commonly used in Latin America than in Spain. For this purpose, as in the case of pronouns, it is necessary to have a definite article before the noun:

Su clase. / La clase suya.

Mis amigos. / Los amigos míos.

Moreover, when we talk about parts of the body, it is assumed that the possession of the subject is implied; because of this, we replace the possessive with a definite article:

Me lavé la cara. / Me lavé mi cara.

However, when there may be confusion, it is necessary to use the possessive:

Mi amigo levantó la mano (the raised hand belongs to my friend).

Mi amigo levantó mi mano (the raised hand is mine).

Finally, it is possible to use the indefinite determiner todo in combination with possessive determiners. When this happens, todo always goes in front:

Toda mi familia. / Mi toda familia.

On the other hand, other indefinites (mucho, otro…) must be used after the possessive:

Sus muchos problemas. / Muchos sus problemas.

Nuestras otras casas. / Otras nuestras casas.

With this article, we have already delved into the use of possessive pronouns in Spanish and possessive determiners. We hope you can put them into practice in your daily life. But if you really want to improve your level of Spanish, don’t hesitate to reserve classes on Spanishviaskype.com.