POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES - Aggettivi possessivi

The possessive adjectives in Italian have a masculine and a feminine form, in the singular and in the plural:

In the masculine singular:

MIO       MY

TUO       YOUR

SUO       HIS/HER

NOSTRO    OUR

VOSTRO    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

In the feminine singular:

MIA        MY

TUA        YOUR

SUA        HIS/HER

NOSTRA     OUR                      

VOSTRA     YOUR

LORO       THEIR                    

Before masculine nouns we use masculine adjectives and before feminine nouns we use feminine adjectives, so for example we say:

IL MIO LETTO (my bed)

IL TUO CELLULARE (your mobile phone)

LA MIA CAMERA (my room)

LA NOSTRA VALIGIA (our suitcase)

In the masculine plural:

MIEI      MY

TUOI      YOUR

SUOI      HIS/HER

NOSTRI    OUR

VOSTRI    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

In the feminine plural:

MIE       MY                        

TUE       YOUR

SUE       HIS/HER

NOSTRE    OUR

VOSTRE    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

For example:

I SUOI AMICI (his/her friends)

I VOSTRI VICINI (your neighbours)

LE VOSTRE CANZONI (your songs)

LE LORO SCARPE (their shoes)

Note that, unlike in English, in Italian the 3rd person pronoun doesn’t specify whether the owner is a male or a female, so that LA SUA AUTO can either be “his car” or “her car”, depending on the context.

The possessive adjective is generally preceeded by an article (definite or indefinite), for example:

LA MIA AMICA CLARA (my friend Clara)

UNA MIA AMICA (a friend of mine)   

PS. LORO is always invariabile

EXCEPTION:

An exception to this rule is with nouns referring to family members.

We don’t put the article before terms like padre, madre, zia, sorella, fratello, cugino…
So we never say *LA MIA SORELLA, but MIA SORELLA, and not *IL MIO ZIO, but MIO ZIO.

However, with MAMMA and PAPÀ you can either use the article or not, so it’s acceptable to say LA MIA MAMMA and IL MIO PAPÀ though it’s more common to hear them without article.

Before LORO you must always have an article at any time, so you have to say: LA LORO CUGINA, I LORO NONNI, LE LORO FIGLIE.

If there’s another adjective that specifies some further information about the family member, the article is always accepted, so for example you cannot say: *IL MIO MARITO, but you can say IL MIO EX MARITO.

Or you cannot say *IL MIO FRATELLO, but you can say IL MIO FRATELLO PIÚ GRANDE (my youngest brother).

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