italian possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives show ownership. In English they are my, your, his, her, its, our, your, and their. Which one you use depends mainly on two factors: 1) the relationship between the owner and the speaker and 2) the number of owners.

If the owner is the speaker, you use "my" for one owner, "our" for more than one.

If the owner is the person the speaker is speaking to, you use "your" for both singular and plural owners.

If the owner is the person the speaker is speaking about, you use "his" for a male human owner, "her" for a female human owner, "its" for a non-human owner, and "their" for plural owners.

The main Italian possessives are mio (my), tuo (your), suo (your formal, his and her), nostro (our), vostro (your plural) and loro (their). You use them the same way - mio when the owner is the speaker, tuo when the owner is the person the speaker is speaking to and so on.

In addition to these forms, the Italian possessives (like all adjectives) change slightly to reflect the gender and number of the noun they go with, in this case the thing owned (not the owner). So "mio" becomes "mia" when the thing owned is feminine, "miei" for masculine plural things owned and "mie" for feminine plural. Another difference is that Italian possessives are always introduced by the definite article. So "my book" is "il mio libro". The exception is family members in the singular. These take the possessive only with no definite article ("mio fratello"). For family members in the plural you use the article again ("i miei fratelli"). The chart below lists all the forms and when to use which. Auguri!