Long-Form Possessives

Remember possessive adjectives? minuestro tuvuestrosu They’re equivalent to myouryour his,hertheir its And they ALWAYS come BEFORE a noun.

Now you’re going to learn another set of possessives, called long-form possessives: míonuestro tuyovuestrosuyo These CANNOT come before a noun. They come AFTER a noun, and when they do, they frequently emphasize possession: La casa mía es muy grande. = My house is very big.

But more often than not, they are equivalent to the following: mineoursyours his, hers, itstheirs Note that these are NOT the same as myouryour his, her, itstheir

My house is big.This house is mine. *Mine house is big.*This house is my. *You can’t say these. Duh. So just like my/your/her and mine/yours/hers have different rules for usage, mi/tu/su and mío/tuyo/suyo have different rules for usage.

mi nuestro(el) mío(el) nuestro tu vuestro(el) tuyo(el) vuestro su su(el) suyo(el) suyo 1. ALWAYS precedes a noun: Mi casa es grande. 2. follows a noun: La casa mía es grande. 3. can be a pronoun: a. This house is mine. - Esta casa es mía. b. She uses mine. - Usa la mía/el mío/las mías/los míos (depending on whether what’s “mine” is masc./fem./sing./pl.). You’ll notice that a doesn’t have an article before “mía” but b does. Here are the rules for using the article: 1. If the comes right after a noun, it doesn’t get an article right in front of it: La casa mía es grande. 2. If the comes right after “ser,” it doesn’t get an article in front of it: La casa es mía. 3. If the comes anywhere else, you have to have an article with it: La mía es grande. Tienes la mía. Vivimos en la mía.

Click here to go to a brief practice.here

To sum up: Mi, tu, su, etc. ( ) can be used ONLY before a noun. Mío, tuyo, etc. ( ) is used everywhere else. is NOT preceded by an article if it’s preceded by a noun. is NOT preceded by an article if it’s preceded by “ser.” IS preceded by an article at all other times.

Click here to go to your first homework.here Click here to go to your second homework.here