Possessive Pronouns and Determiners

What is the difference between possessive pronouns and possessive determiners?

Possessive pronouns replace the noun (in English they correspond to mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs).

Possessive determiners precede the possessed object (in English they correspond to my, your, his, her, our, and their).

In Portuguese, possessive pronouns and determiners make use of the same words. For example:

• “Isto é meu” (This is mine) ➡ Possessive pronoun
• “É o meu carro” (It's my car) ➡ Possessive determiner

Yet, since they have to match the gender and number of the possessed object, there are four possible translations for each possessive.

For example: “My” and “mine” can be “meu” (masculine singular) or “minha” (feminine singular) and their respective plurals “meus” and “minhas.”

* When the possessor is “ele” (he), “ela” (she) or “eles/elas” (they), we often replace the possessives “seu(s)” and “sua(s)” with the construction “dele(s)” (of him/of them) and “dela(s)” (of her/of them), as we explain further down in the article.

Possessive pronouns

Portuguese possessive pronouns replace the noun they refer to and are normally preceded by a definite article (o, a, os, as). When the pronoun is introduced by the verb “ser” (to be) the use of the article is optional and then, it acts as a reinforcement.

For example, when we say. “Esta é a minha” it’s as if we say “This is the one that is mine” instead of just saying “Esta é minha” (This is mine).

Examples without the verb “ser” (to be):

• 🧦 Não encontro as minhas (I can’t find mine)
• “Gosto do teu” (I like yours). Here the article is contracted with the preposition “de” (do = de + o).

Examples with verb “ser” (to be):

• “Esta é nossa” or “Esta é a nossa” (This is ours)
• “Esses são vossos” or “Esses são os vossos” (Those are yours)

Possessive determiners

Possessive determiners go before the noun and are preceded by a definite article.

For example:

• 📱 Este é o meu telefone (This is my phone)
• “Gosto do teu casaco” (I like your jacket). Here the article is contracted with the preposition “de” (do = de + o)
• 📦 Trouxe a sua encomenda (I brought your/his/her/their package)
• 🏡 Esta é a nossa casa (This is our house)
• 🎟️ Esses são os vossos bilhetes (Those are your tickets)
• 🗣️ É a sua opinião (It’s your/his/her/their opinion)

The third-person alternative to possessives

The third person singular (você, ele, ela) and the third person plural (eles, elas) use the same possessives (seu, sua, seus, suas), and this makes it a bit tricky to be sure who is the possessor.

To make it less dubious, when the possessor is “ele,” “ela”, “eles” or “elas” we often replace the possessives “seu(s)” and “sua(s)” with the construction “dele(s)” (of him/of them) and “dela(s)” (of her/of them).

When using this structure we don’t need to worry about the gender or number of the possessed object. Also, “dele(s)” and “dela(s)” are placed after the possessed object instead of before.

For example:

• “Este é o bolo dela” (This is her cake) - instead of “Este é o seu bolo.”
• “Vi as primas dele” (I saw his cousins) - Instead of “Vi as suas primas”
• “É delas” (It is theirs) - instead of “É seu/sua”
• “São deles” (They are theirs) - instead of “São seus/suas”