We name the possession first, and then the possessor, e.g “la casa” (possession) “de” (of) “Lucía” (who possesses), literally “The house of Lucía”. Remember that if the article “el” comes after “de” you need to contract the two words to “del”: El cuaderno del estudiante.

• Possessive Adjectives.
• (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
• and Demonstrative Words.
• (this, that, these, those)

The possessive adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, their, and whose. A possessive adjective sits before a noun (or a pronoun) to show who or what owns it.

Possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns exercise 1

1. Is this cup. (your / yours)?
2. The coffee is. (my / mine).
3. That coat is. (my / mine).
4. He lives in. (her / hers) house.
5. You might want. (your / yours) phone.
6. The new car is. (their / theirs).
7. She cooked. (our / ours) food.
8. Don’t stand on.

The Spanish possessive adjectives are:

• mi/tu/su/nuestro/vuestro/su with a masculine singular noun.
• mi/tu/su/nuestra/vuestra/su with a feminine singular noun.
• mis/tus/sus/nuestros/vuestros/sus with a masculine plural noun.
• mis/tus/sus/nuestras/vuestras/sus with a feminine plural noun.

The word “de” is widely used with the verb ser. It means “of” when used to indicate possession and “from” when used to indicate origin. Por ejemplo: ¿De quién es el zapato?

The preposition de (of) is used to express relationship and possession. If the sentence has two or more nouns, de (or d’ before a vowel) is repeated before each noun: Ce sont les parents de Roger et de Luc. (They are Roger and Luke’s parents./They are the parents of Roger and of Luke.)

In English, we use ‘s (apostrophe s) to indicate that one noun possesses another. The French equivalent is the preposition de, with the order of the nouns reversed. Literally, “the letter of Sandrine” and “the cafés of France.”

preposition de

A noun names a person, place, thing, idea, quality or action. A possessive noun shows ownership by adding an apostrophe, an “s” or both.

The French possessive adjectives are:

• mon/ton/son/notre/votre/leur in the masculine singular.
• ma/ta/sa/notre/votre/leur in the feminine singular.
• mes/tes/ses/nos/vos/leurs in the plural.

The French possessive pronouns are le mien, le tien, le sien for singular subject pronouns, and le nôtre, le vôtre and le leur for plural subject pronouns. Their forms change in the feminine and the plural.

In French, possessive pronouns vary in form depending on the gender and number of the noun they replace. The gender and number of the possessive pronoun must agree with the gender and number of the noun possessed, not that of the possessor.

It is as a possessive adjective that the spelling of leur can change and may need a final s. Here, leur means “their” (i.e. belonging to them). It is used to indicate there are several possessors.