How to talk about possession in Spanish?

To talk about possession or relationship in Spanish, we use prepositionNo definition set for prepositionLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. de, equivalent to how English uses ‘s, for example: La casa de Ana. ("Ana’s house.") In a previous post, we discussed all about indicating possession using Spanish possessive adjectives like mi ("my"), tu ("your"), and su ("his/her/its") and possessive pronouns like el mio ("mine"), el tuyo ("yours"), and el suyo ("his/hers/its"). However, talking about possession using preposition de is particularly useful when we want to clarify or emphasize who the owner of the object is! Let’s check it out!

In English, when we talk about possession we use an “apostrophe ‘s’” on the word that indicates the owner of an object: “Maria’s cat,” or to indicate relationship: “Maria’s sister.” In Spanish, we use the preposition de, in the following formula:

Preposition "de" in Spanish is one of the most frequent prepositions. To learn more about its other uses check out our post on the most common prepositions in Spanish.

• In negative sentences, we insert the word no

  Ese perro no es de Laura.

  That dog isn’t Laura’s.

• In questions, we place the preposition de before the question word:

  –¿De quién es esa mochila?	–Whose backpack is that?
  –Es del chico argentino.	–It belongs to the Argentinian guy.

In Spanish, to talk about “his,” “her,” “your” (formal), “its,” “your” (plural), or “their” we only have the possessive adjective su or sus. Because these forms can have many meanings, we often use the possessive construction with de + prepositional pronoun to avoid confusion:

Singular pronouns:

• de ella

  hers

• de él

  his

• de usted

  your (formal)

Plural pronouns:

• de ustedes

  your (plural)

• de ellos

  their

• de ellas

  their

For example:

Sometimes you may need to clarify your message when talking about a
third-personNo definition set for third-personLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. singular or plural, and you may even need to use the name of the person in case you want to be very clear:

In the first example we use the possessive adjective su, but it isn’t clear if we’re talking about Felipe or María’s birthday. To clarify this, we can use the possessive construction with preposition de:

Or, we can specify who we’re talking about by referring to their name:

The same is true for the long possessive adjective or pronoun suyo or suyos, because it can mean “his,” “hers,” “yours,” “its,” or “theirs.” When we need to clarify or even emphasize to whom the object belongs, we use the possessive construction with the preposition de.

In this case, suyo can be replaced by de and a prepositional pronoun to clarify the owner of the notebook.

In Spanish there are two ways to show possession: we can use the possessive adjectives and pronouns, or we can use the possessive construction with preposition de. Remember that this construction with de is particularly useful to clarify who su/sus or suyo/suyos refers to, since they don’t show gender! And this, my friends, is the one time you’ll get a pass on gender in Spanish!

Ready to practice? Here’s an exercise to practice both ways to talk about possession in Spanish!