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Learn about Spanish long form possessives
In Spanish, there is a set of possessive adjectives with a longer form that are placed after the noun they are modifying. They have the same function as short-form possessive adjectives have but these emphasise the possession instead of the noun. Have a look at the table:
| English |
Masc sing |
Masc plural |
Fem sing |
Fem plural |
| my/of mine | mío | míos | mía | mías |
| your/of yours (tú) | tuyo | tuyos | tuya | tuyas |
|
your/of yours (usted) |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
|
his/of his |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
|
her/of her |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
|
its |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
| our/of ours | nuestro | nuestros | nuestra | nuestras |
| your/ of yours (vosotros) | vuestro | vuestros | vuestra | vuestras |
|
your/of yours (ustedes) |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
|
their/of theirs |
suyo | suyos | suya | suyas |
You can see from the table that there are 4 different forms for each "possessor". The forms ending in -o and -a refer to singular masculine possession or singular feminine possession respectively. The forms ending in -os and -as refer to plural masculine possession or plural feminine possession respectively.
Here are some examples:
As you can appreciate from the table, the possessive adjective "suyo, suya, suyos, suyas" could be referring to different possessors. Sometimes it is necessary to have more context to know who it is referring to. For example:
More examples:
Remember to always place the long possessive adjectives after the noun, not before. You cannot say:
- Javier es mío amigo.
- Aquí está tuya cerveza.
Remember the written accent on : mío, mía, míos, mías.
See also how to use long-form possessives as pronouns:
- Possessive pronouns in Spanish: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours and theirs
- How to say ours and yours plural (possessive pronouns)
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