Stressed possessives: mío, tuyo

Mi or mío?

Mi, tu, su go before a noun: mi libro (my book). When no noun follows, use the long form mío, tuyo, suyo: El libro es mío. (The book is mine.)

It is like English “my” and “mine”:

• Es mi maleta. (It's my suitcase.)
• La maleta es mía. (The suitcase is mine.)

Mío, mía, míos, mías have a written accent on the í; tuyo and suyo have none.

It agrees with the thing

Like mi and nuestro, the long form agrees with the thing that is owned, not with the owner: masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

• Este libro es mío. — Esta llave es mía.
• Estos zapatos son míos. — Estas fotos son mías.

So a man says La bicicleta es mía and a woman says El sombrero es mío: look at bicicleta and sombrero, not at the person speaking.

Whose is it? ¿De quién es?

To ask who something belongs to, use ¿De quién es…? (one thing) or ¿De quién son…? (several things):

• ¿De quién es esta mochila? (Whose backpack is this?)
• ¿De quién son estas llaves? (Whose keys are these?)

Answer with ser + the long form, without an article, or with de + a name:

• Es mía. (It's mine.)
• Son de Ana. (They're Ana's.)

Spanish has no “'s”: “Ana's keys” is las llaves de Ana.

El mío, la tuya: instead of a noun

To avoid repeating a noun, put the article before the long form: el mío, la tuya, los suyos, las nuestras. Both agree with the noun you leave out:

• Mi casa es pequeña; la tuya es grande. (My house is small; yours is big.)
• Tu maleta es más grande que la mía. (Your suitcase is bigger than mine.)
• —¿Son tus zapatos? —No, los míos son negros. (—Are they your shoes? —No, mine are black.)

After ser, you say whose it is without the article (Es mía.); with the article you point out one thing among several: —¿Cuál es tu maleta? —Esta es la mía. (—Which one is your suitcase? —This one is mine.)

Un amigo mío: after a noun

The long form can also go after a noun, usually with un, una, unos, unas. It means “a friend of mine”, “some friends of ours”:

• Pedro es un amigo mío. (Pedro is a friend of mine.)
• Ayer invitamos a unos amigos nuestros. (Yesterday we invited some friends of ours.)

Un and mi never go together: un mi amigo is wrong.

Suyo: his, hers, yours, theirs

Suyo can mean “his”, “hers”, “yours” (to usted or ustedes) or “theirs”. Usually the context makes it clear:

• —¿Es de Pablo este abrigo? —Sí, es suyo. (—Is this coat Pablo's? —Yes, it's his.)
• Señora, ¿este sombrero es suyo? (Ma'am, is this hat yours?)

When it isn't clear, say de + the person instead: es de él, es de ella, es de usted, es de ellos.