Beginner Italian Level 2 

Lesson 60 - Part 1 
Aggettivi Possessivi  
 
 

Previously, we discussed that there are two main forms of expressing ​AGGETTIVI POSSESSIVI​ ​- 
and they are: 

Article + Possessive + Noun ​(standard form) 

Article + Noun + Possessive 

Now, let’s have a look at what the standard ​POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES ​are in Italian: 

First Person ​(IO) 

Masculine, Singular  IL MIO  

Feminine, Singular  LA MIA 

Masculine, Plural  I MIEI 

Feminine, Plural  LE MIE 

 
Anything referring to ​IO ​has 4 options. Why?​ Because we choose the possessive based on the 
thing that we own, not the gender of the owner. 

Il mio amico Sandro è​ ​alto. | My friend Sandro is tall.  

La mia amica Sandra è​ ​alta.  | My friend Sandra is tall. 
I miei genitori sono in vacanza.  | My parents are on vacation. 
Le mie cugine lavorano in banca.  | My cousins work at a bank. 

Don’t forget that when we are speaking about family members we drop the article, EXCEPT when 
it is plural. This is why ​CUGINE ​in the last example is: 
 

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LE MIE CUGINE​ and ​not​ ​MIE CUGINE. 
 
Second Person ​(TU) 

Masculine, Singular  IL TUO  

Feminine, Singular  LA TUA 

Masculine, Plural  I TUOI 

Feminine, Plural  LE TUE 

Il tuo amico Sandro è alto.  | Your friend Sandro is tall. 

La tua amica Sandra è alta. | Your friend Sandra is tall. 
I tuoi genitori sono in vacanza. | Your parents are on vacation. 
Le tue cugine lavorano in banca. | Your cousins work at a bank.  
 
Third Person ​SINGULAR ​(LUI/LEI) 

The third person is where it gets a little tricky. Don’t forget that the Italian possessive tells a story 
about the possessed object and not the owner. We do not know whether the owner or person 
who has this friend is male or female, and that’s ok! In Italian we don’t need to know.  
 

Masculine, Singular  IL SUO 

Feminine, Singular  LA SUA 

Masculine, Plural  I SUOI 

Feminine, Plural  LE SUE 

Il suo amico Sandro è alto. | His/Her friend Sandro is tall. 

La sua amica Sandra è alta. | His/Her friend Sandra is tall. 
I suoi genitori sono in vacanza.  | His/Her parents are on 

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vacation.  
Le sue cugine lavorano in banca.  | His/Her cousins work at a 
  bank. 
 
SUO​ ​can describe​ - ​Marco’s friend - Gina’s friend - its friend​ ​(maybe “its” refers to a dog). It’s all 
about the context in Italian. 
 
Third Person​ ​FORMAL 
Il ​S​uo amico Sandro è alto.  |  Your friend Sandro, 
  Sir/Ma’am​, is tall. 
La ​S​ua amica Sandra è alta. | Your friend Sandra, 
Sir/Ma’am​, is 
  tall. 
I ​S​uoi genitori sono in vacanza.  |  Your parents, ​Sir/Ma’am​, are 
on vacation. 
Le ​S​ue cugine lavorano in banca. | Your cousins, ​Sir/Ma’am​, 
work at a bank.  
 
SUO (Suo) ​= ​Your, Sir / Ma’am 

What changes here is the capital ​S, ​used for anything relating to the Formal ​LEI​.  
 
First Person ​PLURAL​ ​(NOI) 

Masculine, Singular  IL NOSTRO 

Feminine, Singular  LA NOSTRA  

Masculine, Plural  I NOSTRI 

Feminine, Plural  LE NOSTRE 

Il nostro amico Sandro​ ​è alto. | Our friend Sandro is tall.  

La nostra amica Sandra è alta. | Our friend Sandra is tall.  
I nostri genitori sono in vacanza. |  Our parents are on vacation. 

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Le nostre cugine lavorano in banca.  | Our cousins work in a bank. 
 

Collective Possession  
Many times, in Italian when something is “owned” by a collective subject (​NOI, VOI, 
LORO​), we will use the singular of the noun being possessed, when it can be assumed 
that everyone has their own.   
 
Queste cose sono importanti nella ​nostra​ ​vita​. |  These things are important in our   
life. ​(not lives) 
Ci fa​ male ​la testa |  Our ​head ​hurts. (not heads) 
La vostra​ ​salute ​e tutto.  | Your ​health​ ​is everything. (not 
*healths) 

This is another one of those examples where Italians try to simplify things. We all have one life so 
we just say ​LIFE ​instead of ​LIVES ​-​ ​LA NOSTRA VITA​.​ We all have one ​HEAD​, so we do not need 
to specify all of our ​HEADS​, and so forth.  
 
 

Second Person ​PLURAL​ ​(VOI) 

Masculine, Singular  IL VOSTRO 

Feminine, Singular  LA VOSTRA 

Masculine, Plural  I VOSTRI 

Feminine, Plural  LE VOSTRE 

Il vostro amico Sandro è alto. | Your friend Sandro is tall.  

La vostra amica Sandra è alta. | Your friend Sandra is tall.  
I vostri genitori sono in vacanza. | Your parents are on vacation. 
Le vostre cugine lavorano in banca. | Your cousins work in a bank. 
 
 

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AVOID THE CONFUSION 
VOSTR_ / NOSTR_​ = ​subject is plural  
Don’t forget that when we use the ​Possessive Adjective​ for the plural subjects ​NOI ​and ​VOI, ​it 
doesn’t automatically mean that the object owned is plural. 
I vostri cani  | Your ​dogs​.  
Il vostro cane  | Your ​dog​.  
 
We can all have many dogs. And we can all have one dog of whom we share 
ownership/possession. ​Think about it this way​, your family of 4 people has 1 dog - so,​ ​IL NOSTRO 
CANE​.​ But, our animal shelter has many dogs,​ I NOSTRI CANI.  
 
 
Third Person ​PLURAL​ ​(LORO) 

Masculine, Singular  IL LORO 

Feminine, Singular  LA LORO 

Masculine, Plural  I LORO 

Feminine, Plural  LE LORO 

Il loro amico Sandro è alto. | Their friend Sandro is tall. 

La loro amica Sandra è alta. | Their friend Sandra is tall. 
I loro genitori sono in vacanza. | Their parents are on 
vacation. 
Le loro cugine lavorano in banca.  | Their cousins work in a bank. 

ARTICLE + LORO 
IL LORO 
I LORO 
LA LORO  
LE LORO 
 

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When using ​LORO ​as a Possessive Adjective, you must always use an article. ​If you use the 
wrong article,​ ​you will incorrectly quantify the ob​ject.  
IL LORO AMICO​ - ​implies ​ALL OF THEIR ​one friend.  
But if you want to say ​ALL OF THEIR FRIENDS​, you need to use the right article,​ I LORO AMICI 
Your ​plural noun​ ​needs​ a ​plural Possessive Adjective​ which ​needs​ a ​plural article.  
 

Potential Trap  
Some students have reported that they sometimes get confused when using ​LORO​ as a 
Possessive Adjective​ because the ​-O​ ending of ​LORO​ makes them use ​-O​ as the ending of the 
noun that follows: 
* I LORO LIBRO​ ​is incorrect 
* LE LORO MANO ​is incorrect 
 
We should say: 
I LORO LIBRI 
LE LORO MANI 
 
 
   

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All Possessive Adjectives 

Below is a chart to summarize the full range of ​Possessive Adjectives​.  

  Masculine Singular  Masculine Plural  Feminine Singular  Feminine Plural 

IO  il mio  i miei  la mia  le mie 

TU  il tuo  i tuoi  la tua  le tue 

LEI   il Suo  i Suoi  la Sua  le Sue 

2nd person 
formal 

LEI  il suo  i suoi  la sua  le sue 

LUI  il suo  i suoi  la sua  le sue 

NOI  il nostro  i nostri  la nostra  le nostre 

VOI  il vostro  i vostri  la vostra  le vostre 

LORO  il loro  i loro  la loro  le loro 

Practice 
STEP 1 - DRILLS 
Add ​Possessive Adjectives​ to all objects around the house changing the subject.  
Examples: 

Il mio bicchiere 

Il mio asciugamano  

Il tuo bicchiere  

Il tuo asciugamano ... 

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STEP 2 - MIX ‘EM UP! 
Start using ​Possessive Adjectives ​in your sentences (without overdoing it) - Play around with the 
position of the possessive.  
Examples: 

Il mio asciugamano è verde 

L’asciugamano mio è verde 

I miei occhiali sono marroni  

Gli occhiali miei sono 

marroni 
 
Yes, the second and fourth example can be considered regional. But, switching the position of 
the possessive this way, is good practice and will help you familiarize yourself with how to use 
Aggettivi Possessivi ​and how many Italians speak. 
So, walk around your house or a store for 20-30 minutes at a time alternating between both of 
these exercises.  

Remember 
Possessive Adjectives​ are still Adjectives, so they need to match the gender and number of the 
noun they are referring to. You are already used to this!  
 
Let’s take: 
il​ ​panino ​buono  
 
That’s: 
Definite Article​ + ​Noun ​+ ​Adjective 
 
We now have two options. Starting with the ‘regional’ or empathic structure for ​Possessive 
Adjectives​, we would just replace the Adjective ​BUONO ​with the ​Possessive Adjective​ ​MIO​.  
 
 
 

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il​ ​panino ​mio 
 
As you can see, that is exactly the same structure we used earlier.  
Let’s try another one.  
Gli​ ​amici ​italiani 
 
That’s still: 
Definite Article​ + ​Noun ​+ ​Adjective 
 
And now, let’s specify that those friends are ​yours​.  
Gli​ ​amici ​tuoi 
 
Or even… 
Gli​ ​amici ​italiani tuoi 
 
Now, let’s use the more standard structure for Possessive Adjectives. All we need to do is put the 
Possessive BEFORE the noun, just like we do in English.  
il​ ​mio ​panino (buono) 
i​ ​tuoi ​amici (italiani) 
 
Here are the examples, from the video lesson: 
 
Il panino buono  Il panino mio / il mio panino My sandwich 
Il cane nero  Il cane nero mio / il mio cane nero  My black dog  
Il cane grande  Il cane grande suo / il suo cane grande His/Her big dog 
L’insalata buona L’insalata buona mia / la mia insalata buona My tasty salad  
L’insalata verde  L’insalata verde mia / la mia insalata verde My green salad 
Gli amici italiani  Gli amici italiani miei​ / ​i miei amici italiani  My​ ​italian friends 
Le amiche italiane  ​ e tue amiche italiane 
Le amiche italiane tue​ / L Your italian friends 
Le amiche inglesi  Le amiche inglesi loro / le loro amiche ingles​i  Their italian friends 
 
It is good practice to repeat this lesson out loud. Italian has a lot of vowels which can sometimes 
be difficult to pronounce. The goal after all, is to get you speaking! 

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