Possessive adjectives come before nouns. They let us know who owns the object.
EXAMPLE
"Mi amigo" means "my friend."1a. Rules of Agreement
Possessive adjectives agree with the objects that they describe, not with the people that own the objects.
EXAMPLE
"Mis amigos" means "my friends."The word "mis" does not imply that I am more than one person; instead, it states that I have more than one friend.
The possessive adjectives that you will need to know for your profession are gender neutral; you will not change the endings to agree with the gender of the object described. You will only need to add an "s" to describe more than one object.
EXAMPLE
"Su" can mean "his," her," "your," or "their." It changes to "sus" to describe more than one object.The chart below presents further examples of how the possessive adjective only changes when it becomes plural; it does not change when the gender of the noun changes.
Spanish Adjective and Noun | Number | Gender | English Translation |
---|---|---|---|
mi amigo | singular | masculine | my male friend |
mi amiga | singular | feminine | my female friend |
su amigo | singular | masculine | his/her/your/their male friend |
su amiga | singular | feminine | his/her/your/their female friend |
mis amigos | plural | masculine | my male friends |
mis amigas | plural | feminine | my female friends |
sus amigos | plural | masculine | his/her/your/their male friends |
sus amigas | plural | feminine | his/her/your/their female friends |
1b. Stating Names
If you want to state the name of the person to whom something belongs, you must state possession "the long way around." In English, we use the "'s" as a short-cut. In Spanish, there is no such thing as an "apostrophe-s."
EXAMPLE
To say "Teresa's car," you must say "el carro de Teresa" (the car of Teresa). "Sara's medicine" would be "la medicina de Sara" (the medicine of Sara).Source: This content has been adapted from "Pharmacy Spanish" by Stephanie Langston.