Using the preposition "de" |
| |
In
English, when you're going to say that something belongs
to someone, you use a construction with an apostrophe: |
|
Dad's car |
Mom's shoes |
Jim's football |
Mary's hat |
|
| It
is also possible to switch these around and say them differently. |
|
the car of Dad |
the shoes of Mom |
the football of Jim |
the hat of Mary |
|
| This
reverse order is what you HAVE TO DO in Spanish, to form
the possessive of anything. |
If
somebody owns something, then you're going to have to
use the formula of "the (whatever) of (whomever)." |
| There
are many possibilities for the first part of the construction,
since Spanish has four different ways of saying "the."
|
You
probably need to pick up a few vocabulary words while
you're reading this page, so don't freak out if you see
words that you haven't studied yet. |
We
already know that nouns are either masculine or feminine.
That means they either start with el
or la when
you learn them. |
|
Masculine
|
Feminine
|
|
el libro |
the
book |
la
casa |
the
house |
|
el carro |
the
car |
la
cachucha |
the
cap |
|
el fútbol |
the
football |
la
nariz |
the
nose |
|
el bífstek |
the
steak |
la
esposa |
the
wife |
|
It
doesn't matter who owns the objects above. You'll still
say the words as they are along with de
and the name of the person they belong to. |
Let's
say that all of these objects belong to somebody named
Miguel. |
|
el libro de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
book" or "the book of Michael" |
| el
carro de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
car" or "the car of Michael" |
| el
fútbol de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
football" or "the football of Michael" |
| el
bífstek de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
steak" or "the steak of Michael" |
| la
casa de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
house" or "the house of Michael" |
| la
cachucha de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
cap" or "the cap of Michael" |
| la
nariz de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
nose" or "the nose of Michael" |
| la
esposa de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
wife" or "the wife of Michael" |
|
| Notice
that all of these constructions refer themselves to being
"Michael's." He owns all of them. |
| Nothing
changes about how the words el
or la are
used in saying "the." |
The
same thing occurs when you put these nouns into their
plural forms. |
|
Masculine
|
Feminine
|
|
los libros |
the
books |
las
casas |
the
houses |
|
los carros |
the
cars |
las
cachuchas |
the
caps |
|
los fútboles |
the
footballs |
las
narices |
the
noses |
|
los bífsteks |
the
steaks |
las
esposas |
the
wifes |
|
| If
you're saying that these pluralized nouns belong to Miguel,
it's still the same construction. |
|
los libros de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
books" or "the books of Michael" |
| los
carros de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
cars" or "the cars of Michael" |
| los
fútboles de Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
footballs" or "the footballs of Michael" |
| los
bífsteks de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
steaks" or "the steaks of Michael" |
| las
casas de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
houses" or "the houses of Michael" |
| las
cachuchas de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
caps" or "the caps of Michael" |
| las
narices de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
noses" or "the noses of Michael" |
| las
esposas de
Miguel |
says |
"Michael's
wives" or "the wives of Michael" |
|
|
There
is no such thing as using an apostrophe in the possessive
construction in Spanish. |
|
|
Masculine
|
Feminine
|
|
Papá |
the
Dad |
Mamá
|
the
Mom |
|
el perro |
the
dog |
la
comida |
the
food |
|
el trabajo |
the
work |
la
escuela |
the
school |
|
el hermano |
the
brother |
la
hermana |
the
sister |
|
el
celular
|
the
cell phone |
la
televisión |
the
television |
|
Try
your hand at forming the following possessives in Spanish.
Use the vocabulary words provided above to make the following
possessive phrases: |
|
English
phrase |
becomes
|
in
Spanish |
|
Mom's house |
->
|
la casa de Mamá |
| Dad's
television |
->
|
la televisión de Papá |
| the
dog's food |
->
|
la comida de el perro |
| my
sister's school |
->
|
la escuela de la hermana |
| Mom's
cell phone |
->
|
el celular de Mamá |
| my
brother's food |
->
|
la comida de el hermano |
| Dad's
work |
->
|
el trabajo de Papá |
| my
sister's dog |
->
|
el perro de la hermana |
|
Left
click and hold your mouse cursor from the arrow to the
right over the last cell. This will highlight the far
right cell to show the correct formation. |
This
construction is easy enough. The biggest problem is simply
to remember to reverse the order of the words for formation
of possessive. |
| |
