Mine, Yours, and Ours
Let’s take a closer look at this first group of possessives: meu, teu, nosso and vosso, plus their feminine and plural forms.
| Subject | Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for masculine nouns) | Possessive Pronoun/Determiner (for feminine nouns) |
| Eu | meumy, mine meusmy, mine | minhamy, mine minhasmy, mine |
| Tu | teuyour, yours teusyour, yours | tuayour, yours tuasyour, yours |
| Nós | nossoour, ours nossosour, ours | nossaour, ours nossasour, ours |
| Vós, Vocês | vossoyour, yours vossosyour, yours | vossayour, yours vossasyour, yours |
Gender and Number Agreement
Remember that the pronoun/determiner has to agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to, rather than the person/subject.
For example, if we’re talking about single objects, such as um jornala newspaper (a masculine noun) or uma revistamagazine (a feminine noun), we’d get:
- O meu jornal e a minha revista.My newspaper and my magazine. – Each belonging to me
- O teu jornal e a tua revista.Your newspaper and your magazine. – Each belonging to you (individual)
- O nosso jornal e a nossa revista.Our newspaper and our magazine. – Each belonging to us
- O vosso jornal e a vossa revista.Your newspaper and your magazine. – Each belonging to you (group)
In these examples, we used possessive determiners along with the nouns that we mentioned explicitly. Below, we’ll use possessive pronouns to describe multiple newspapers and multiple magazines, without mentioning them explicitly:
- Os meus e as minhas.Mine and mine. – Each group of them belonging to me
- Os teus e as tuas.Yours and yours. – Each group of them belonging to you (individual)
- Os nossos e as nossas.Ours and ours. – Each group of them belonging to us
- Os vossos e as vossas.Yours and yours. – Each group of them belonging to you (group)
As you can see, there is still gender and number agreement in every case based on the nouns in reference.
The Portuguese s sound (sh) is driving me crazy! Most of these sentences are real tongue-twisters, and I must pronounce them extremely slowly to get them right, especially since the final ‘sh’ turns into an ‘s’ before a word beginning with a vowel …
Why are the possessive pronouns for his and her not included here?
Hi Curt! We cover the 3rd person possessive pronouns in the next few lessons. We decided to separate them because there are 2 different ways to form those possessives. Here are some links for reference:
Seu, Seus, Sua, Suas
3rd Person using De
Dele(s), Dela(s) vs. Seu(s), Sua(s)
Hi, sorry, I’m sure I’ve seen the answer to this somewhere, but can’t find it now.
I understand that the pronoun agrees with the noun. But if I want to say ‘It is mine’ and I’m female, would it be ‘Esta minha’? (With accent) Or would it still agree with whatever I’m talking about? Perhaps it is that now I think about it. So if we were talking about a book, which is masculine, I would say ‘Esta meu’ or ‘E (with accent) meu’?
Many thanks!
Fiona
Olá, Fiona. Possessives always agree strictly with the object (“dele(s)/dela(s)”, the alternative forms for the third person, don’t count as true possessives). So, if the object is defined by a masculine noun, you should say “Este é meu” (or whatever is applicable, “ele/esse/aquele/isto…”).
Many thanks Joseph! Always appreciate your help!
As mentioned above, I can’t figure out when “s” is pronounced “sh” and when it isn’t. Is it mostly when it ends a word? It seems to vary randomly. Are there any rules about this?
Olá! “S” is pronounced like “sh” before consonants and at the end of words (there can be an exception when the word is followed by another word starting with a vowel – in fast speech, it may sound like a “z” then). This Learning Note covers this in detail: https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/the-letters-s-and-c/
Thank you so much!
Hello! I’ve really been enjoying your lessons so far. Can I just check one thing? Even though vós is not really used anymore, o vosso, etc still is? So I would say for example, vocês gostam do vosso carro? Muito obrigada!
Hello Clarissa!
Vós is a personal pronoun (2nd-person plural) that is almost not used anymore as well as its correspondent verb conjugations (ex.: vós ides, vós éreis, vós fazeis.). However, we most commonly use Vocês instead and therefore its verb forms. As for possessives and such, such as vosso, there are no changes! So, you’d say “vocês gostam do vosso carro?” as well as you’d say “vós gostais do vosso carro?”. (To be honest, if you’d be asking something like that using Vós, it would probably be about their horse wagon instead of a car! That’s how old-fashioned Vós is…)
Thank you for clarifying that!
I read somewhere (Wikipedia) that the use of vosso/vossa with vocês is actually a deviation from the norm. That one should use the same forms as for eles/elas, i.e. seu/sua/seus/suas. This would be in line with the forms used for você. That vosso/vossa (at least as possessives) having been derived from vós should also have fallen into disuse just like vós did. And finally that vosso/vossa has remained in use at least in colloquial/everyday usage but would ideally not be found in formal contexts. Don’t know how true this is.
Olá! It’s very true that “vosso/vossa” is presumably linked to “vós” (which is still in regular use in limited regions of the country, but not widespread). However, the usage of “vosso/vossa” with “vocês” is quite generalized in Portugal at this point, regardless of the context. Using “seu/sua/seus/suas” with “vocês” is grammatically correct, but in practice, it would sound less natural for many people.
Thanks for your reply!
Muito bom ne