Absolute possessive pronouns

Madre mía

Mi papá está en casa, ¿y el tuyo? – My dad is at home, and yours?

El mío está en la playa – Mine is on the beach

Those possessive pronouns, that we are using in almost every lesson (mi, tu, su), are, in fact, reduced forms of the more complete pronouns (mío, tuyo, suyo). We will call them absolute possessive pronouns.

If you remember, simple possessive pronouns always come before nouns.

Mi casa

Tu coche

Nuestras clases

If, for some reason, there is no noun, you should use the absolute forms of possessive pronouns.

Mi casa es pequeña y la tuya es grande – My house is small and yours is big

Nuestras clases son difíciles y las vuestras son fáciles – Our classes are difficult and yours are easy

These are the absolute possessive pronouns:

mío – mine

tuyo – yours

suyo – his, hers, yours

nuestro – ours

vuestro – yours

suyo – theirs, yours

Nuestro and vuestro look the same as the simple ones. The rest are a little bit different.

In the list above absolute possessive pronouns are represented in the masculine singular form. Their endings should be changed according to the nouns they refer to.

amiga mía

amigo mío

amigos míos

amigas mías

Let’s explore these pronouns deeper and see, in what situations they can be applied.

case 1

When a noun is placed before a possessive pronoun.

Madre mía – My mother

Amigo mío – My friend

Padre nuestro – Our Father

La novia suya está embarazada – His girlfriend is pregnant

Un amigo mío vive en Cuzco – A friend of mine lives in Cuzco

¿Dónde está ese abrigo tuyo? – Where is that coat of yours?

¿Cómo está el conocido suyo? – How is his fellow?

Try it yourself:

Te quiero, mi amor = …

Tu jefe es muy duro = …

¿De dónde es su abuela? = …

case 2

When a noun is omitted, but its meaning is transmitted through the possessive pronoun.

Mi teléfono es negro y el suyo es blanco – My phone is black and hers is white

Mi pasaporte está aquí. ¿Dónde está el tuyo? – My passport is here. Where is yours?

In these examples there is no need to repeat the nouns twice. The meaning is clear.

Notice, that in this case, determined articles should be used before the absolute possessive pronouns.

Try it yourself:

My car is new and yours is old

Our city is small and yours is big (vosotros)

My son doesn’t work and yours works (usted)

My parents are from Europe and his are from Asia

Our vacation is unforgettable, and yours?

case 3

When the verb ser is used in front of a possessive pronoun, indicating who something belongs to.

ser + possessive pronoun

Esta casa es mía – This house is mine

¿Son tuyos estos zapatos? – Are these shoes yours?

¿De quién es ese coche? – Whose car is that?

Es nuestro – It’s ours

In this case articles are not needed.

Try it yourself:

This phone is yours

The dogs are mine

Are these children yours? (vosotros)

However, sometimes you might hear people use an article before these pronouns.

Aquella casa es mía

Aquella casa es la mía

The difference is that in the second example the word casa could be repeated, but it’s simply cut off. It’s as if someone said: Aquella casa es mi casa.

Now you can say that you know everything about the Spanish possessive pronouns.