Portuguese Possessive Pronouns and Determiners

Portuguese possessive pronouns and determiners indicate possession. In English, these are words like my, your, his, her, our, their (possessive determiners) and mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs (possessive pronouns).

Possessive pronouns and determiners look the same in Portuguese. However, while determiners precede the noun they qualify, pronouns replace the noun altogether and thus stand alone:

Possessive determiners (precede the noun) O meu carro é novo em folha.  My car is brand new. Possessive pronouns (stand-alone) Aquele carro ali é meu. That car over there is mine.

Read on.

Portuguese possessive determiners

Possessive determiners precede the noun they qualify and are normally preceded by a definite article:

	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
my	o meu amigo	a minha amiga	os meus amigos	as minhas amigas
your	o teu amigo	a tua amiga	os teus amigos	as tuas amigas
formal your his/her *	o seu amigo	a sua amiga	os seus amigos	as suas amigas
our	o nosso amigo	a nossa amiga	os nossos amigos	as nossas amigas
your	o vosso amigo	a vossa amiga	as vossas amigas	os vossos amigos
their *	o seu amigo	a sua amiga	os seus amigos	as suas amigas

* Refer to the “3-person de-possessives” below

Here are a few examples where it is clear that these determiners agree in gender and number with the possessed things:

Trouxeste os nossos livros? Did you bring our books? Gostei muito de conhecer os teus pais. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. Não sei onde pus as minhas lentes. I don’t know where I put my lenses.

We often skip the possessive adjective when the relationship between the possessor and the possessed is implicit or obvious:

Vim de carro. I came in my car. A Joana falou ao telefone com a prima do Brasil. Joana spoke on the phone with her cousin from Brazil. Veste as calças! Put your trousers on!

Portuguese possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns replace the noun they refer to (thus standing alone). 

	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
mine	(o) meu	(a) minha	(os) meus	(as) minhas
yours	(o) teu	(a) tua	(os) teus	(as) tuas
formal yours his/hers*	(o) seu	(a) sua	(os) seus	(as) suas
ours	(o) nosso	(a) nossa	(os) nossos	(as) nossas
yours	(o) vosso	(a) vossa	(as) vossas	(os) vossos
theirs*	(o) seu	(a) sua	(os) seus	(as) suas

* Refer to the “3-person de-possessives” below

Notice how possessive pronouns, like possessive determiners, agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to (and replace):