5.03 - Comunicación por celular - Estructuras
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5.03 Comunicación por celular
Repaso de adjetivos posesivos
Do you remember learning Possessive Adjectives? By now you probably use them all the time and know that they agree in gender and number with what they are describing. (They are adjectives after all.) The only tough one to remember is vuestro since we don't practice it very much here. Remember that we pick nuestro, nuestra, vuestro, vuestra, etc; based on the gender of the thing(s) being possessed, not the gender of the possessor.
| mi mis |
my | nuestro nuestra nuestros nuestras |
our |
| tu tus |
your (informal) | vuestro vuestra vuestros vuestras |
your (Used only in Spain with a group of people in informal situations) |
| su sus |
his, her, your (formal) | su sus |
-your (Used in Spain with a group of people in formal situations. Used in Latin America with a group of people for both informal or formal situations)
-their |
EG:
-
Mi madre me dijo que nuestros primos iban a venir con su perro.
The tough one here is su - even Google translate doesn't get it — do you? If you aren't sure, send your teacher a message via e-mail or the messenger tool to make sure.
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns are quite similar in form to Possessive Adjectives. They are often used to avoid repetition — they replace nouns. (They are pronouns after all) Notice that they are used with the definite article, unless they come directly after the verb ser, as in the first example. As usual, this rule (no article after ser) has a couple of exceptions, but we don't need to master that now.
-
¿De quién es este libro? Es mío.
-
¿Tienes tus llaves? Sí, tengo las mías, ¿tienes las tuyas?
| el mío la mía los míos las mías |
mine | el nuestro la nuestra los nuestros las nuestras |
ours |
| el tuyo la tuya los tuyos las tuyas |
yours | el vuestro la vuestra los vuestros las vuestras |
yours (Used only in Spain with a group of people in informal situations) |
| el suyo
la suya los suyos las suyas |
his, hers, yours (formal)
|
el suyo
la suya los suyos las suyas |
-yours (Used in Spain with a group of people in formal situations. Used in Latin America with a group of people in for both informal or formal situations)
- theirs |
Again, suyo/a/s is sometimes difficult to understand. Usually they are only used after context has been well established.
EG:
-
La pantalla grande es suya. (?! We have no idea whose it is - his, hers, yours, theirs?!)
-
La pantalla grande es de ella. El teclado es suyo también. (Now we have context — we know it's HERS)
-
Mira todas las luces delanteras. Las suyas no funcionan. (¿ Whose?)
-
Las luces delanteras de él son nuevas, pero las suyas no funcionan. (Notice we don't make the contraction del because it is not de el, but de él) (HIS don't work)
-
Usted y yo reparamos nuestros frenos, pero los suyos todavía no funcionan. (now we have context — YOURS still don't work.)
Another common way these possessive pronouns are used (without the article) is as follows. (If you've heard of the expression "o díos mío" or movie/play Mamma Mia, this is easy to remember)
EG:
-
Ella es una amiga mía. Se llama Cristina.
-
Un amigo mío tuvo un accidente.
-
Alejandra fue al cine con dos primas suyas.
Even though the film title Mamma Mia could be in Italian or Spanish, how could you translate it slightly differently than my mom based on this new information? Google Translate doesn't know, do you? Use email or the messenger tool to send a quick message to your teacher if you want to check your idea.