You can't really chat in Italian without knowing words like “my” and “your”. They're in everyday phrases like “my family” and “my partner” - exactly the phrases you need to share a bit about yourself.
But there are a couple of differences between English and Italian. You’ll see which ones so you can avoid mistakes.
What Are Italian Possessive Adjectives?
In Italian, a possessive adjective shows who owns something.
They’re words like “my”, and “your” in English, but they’re used a bit differently in Italian – you’ll see what we mean a bit later. They can feel a bit complicated at first, but don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of them over time.
Italian possessive adjectives change depending on the thing you're talking about: whether it’s masculine or feminine, singular or plural.
Here are all the possessive adjectives in Italian.
| Possessive Adjectives | Masculine Singular | Feminine Singular | Masculine Plural | Feminine Plural |
| My | il mio | la mia | i miei | le mie |
| Your (singular) | il tuo | la tua | i tuoi | le tue |
| His / Her / polite your | il suo | la sua | i suoi | le sue |
| Our | il nostro | la nostra | i nostri | le nostre |
| Your (plural) | il vostro | la vostra | i vostri | le vostre |
| Their | il loro | la loro | i loro | le loro |
If you’re thinking “ahhh , this table is a bit scary”, that’s normal!
It’s hard to remember everything when it’s all in a big table like this. Instead, try learning the words in short phrases you’ll actually use. Then you’ll start to pick up the patterns with practice.
For example:
Dov’è il mio passaporto? -Where’s my passport?
Il tuo telefono è scarico -Your phone is out of battery
La nostra valigia è pesante -Our suitcase is heavy
How to Use Italian Possessive Adjectives
In Italy, you’ll probably want to eat pizza! And looking at a word like pizza can help you understand how to use Italian possessive pronouns.
To say “my pizza” it’s: la mia pizza.
Here’s where Italian is a little different from English: in Italian you have to put the word “the” in front of the word for “my”. So, it’s not just “my” but literally “the my”, la mia.
We're using la because pizza is feminine. Since we say la pizza , we say la mia pizza for “my pizza.”
See how both end in -a? La mi a pizz a .
If we had another feminine word, like la famiglia or la pasta , we’d do the same.
La mia pasta -My pasta
La mia famiglia -My family
La mia macchina -My car
Then, if you wanted to say another person has the pizza, you’d again use the - a ending.
For example:
La tua pizza - Your pizza
La nostra pizza - Our pizza
But what if it was a masculine word, like il passaporto or il biglietto? ,
It would be:
Il mio passaporto -My passport
Il mio biglietto -My ticket
Or also:
Il tuo passaporto -Your passport
Il nostro biglietto -Our ticket
Overall, in Italian, possessive adjectives have to agree both in gender and number with the word they are describing.
Italian Possessive Adjectives: A Common Mistake
In English, we use “his” and “her” to show whether something belongs to a man or a woman.
But in Italian, the owner's gender doesn’t matter! What matters is the gender of the thing being owned.
For example, how would you say “her ticket” in Italian?
If you're tempted to say la sua biglietto … stop right there!
Since biglietto is masculine, it’s always il suo biglietto , no matter whether it belongs to a man or a woman.
Let’s see some more examples:
✅Il suo libro - her book (“il suo” because libro is masculine)
✅ La sua famiglia -His family (“la sua” because famiglia is feminine)
Italian Possessive Adjectives: When You Don’t Need “The”
In Italian, there’s a little (and slightly weird) rule when it comes to possessive adjectives and family members.
Like you saw before, normally you have to put the words for “the” in front of the words for “my”, “your” ect… (like la mia or il tuo ), but when talking about a single family member, you don’t need “the”.
For example:
Mia figlia studia medicina -My daughter studies medicine.
Mia moglie è ingegnera -My wife is an engineer.
But the moment you’re talking about more than one family member, “the” comes back.
For example:
I miei figli vivono in Australia -My children live in Australia
I miei nonni sono di Napoli -My grandparents are from Naples
Italian Possessive Adjectives: how to use mio, tuo, suo…: Review
Now you know how to talk about things that belong to you in Italian. Let’s review how Italian possessive adjectives work.
-
Italian possessive adjectives are formed of “the” plus the adjective.
For example:
Dov’è il mio passaporto? -Where’s my passport?
La nostra valigia è pesante -Our suitcase is heavy
-
Italian possessive adjectives agree in number and gender with the item that’s owned.
For example:
Il suo libro -His / her book
La sua famiglia -His / her family
-
You don’t need to use the word “the” if you’re talking about family member (unless it’s in the plural)
For example:
Mia figlia studia medicina -My daughter studies medicine
I miei figli vivono in Australia -My children live in Australia
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: In this episode, you’ll find out how to say words like “my”, “yours” and more. They’re words that Italians use all the time.
K: But even though these words are very common, they can be a bit tricky, because the way they’re used in Italian is more complicated than in English. You’ll see what we mean in a moment.
Before we get started, can we ask you a quick favore? If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you hit the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so that we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie!
M: In this conversation, you’ll hear Katie and I talking about what we’re eating and drinking in a restaurant. See if you can hear the Italian words for “mine” and “yours”.
M: Ehi che fai?
K: Mmm…buona la tua pizza
M: Esatto, la mia pizza. Noi italiani non condividiamo la nostra pizza.
K: Ehi che fai?
M: Mmm…buona la tua birra.
K: La mia birra. Noi inglesi non condividiamo la nostra birra.
K: Even if I don’t always order a pizza, Matteo’s pizza always looks very tempting, so sometimes I’ll try and reach over and grab a slice. When I do this, Matteo usually replies with:
M: Ehi che fai? - Hey, what are you doing? Literally:
Ehi - Hey
Che - what
Fai - you do
K: In Italian, they don’t say “hey”, they say:
M: Ehi
K: It’s kind of like “hey”, but a more Italian sounding version. Then I replied to Matteo:
K: Mmm…buona la tua pizza - Mmm… your pizza’s yummy. Literally:
Buona - good
La - the
Tua - your
Pizza
K: Here, you’ve heard the first example of “your” in Italian. Did you notice how we had to use two words in Italian to say your?
M: La tua (x2)
K: That’s because you have to put the word “the” in front of the word for “your” in Italian. So it’s not just “your”, but literally “the your”.
M: La - the
Tua - your
K: We're using la because pizza is feminine. Since we say la pizza , we say la tua pizza for “your pizza.” See how both end in -a ? La tuA pizza.
M: If we had another feminine word, like la famiglia , we’d do the same. Your family would be
La tua famiglia - your family. Literally:
La - the
Tua - your
Famiglia - family
Can you hear how the ending of the words are really similar? They both end in “a”: La tuA famigliA .
La tua famiglia (x2)
K: What about a masculine word like "il passaporto"? To say "your passport," we say:
Il tuo passaporto - your passport. Literally:
Il - the
Tuo - your
Passaporto - passport
Hear how it ends in -O? Il tuO passaporto.
K: Matteo wasn’t happy that I’d taken a piece of his pizza, so he said:
M: Esatto, la mia pizza.
Esatto - Exactly
La - the
Mia - my
Pizza - pizza
K: Matteo was emphasising that the pizza was his, so he said:
M: La mia pizza (x2)
K: Again, to show it belongs to him, he doesn’t just say “my pizza”, but literally “the (la) my (mia) pizza”. Because pizza is feminine, we want to say miA. La miA pizzA. How would you say “my family”?
[...]
M: La mia famiglia (x2)
K: Can you guess what “my” or literally “the my” would be for a masculine word, like il passaporto?
[...]
M: Il mio (x2)
K: My passport:
M: Il mio passaporto (x2)
K: Then, Matteo said: Noi italiani non condividiamo la nostra pizza - We Italians don’t share our pizza. Literally:
Noi - we
Italiani - Italians
Non - not
Condividiamo - we share
La - the
Nostra - our
Pizza - pizza
K: Italians don’t usually share pizzas, even when they’re ordering them as takeaway. Everyone gets their own pizza.
M: Can someone explain why you actually would want to share a pizza?
K: Matteo also added the word for “our” to talk about the pizza.
M: La nostra pizza - our pizza. Literally:
La - the
Nostra - our
Pizza - pizza
La nostra pizza (x2)
K: So the word for “our” is la nostra , if we’re talking about a feminine word like pizza. How would you say “our family?”
[...]
M: La nostra famiglia (x2)
K: How would you say “our” for a masculine word, like “il treno”, the train?
[...]
M: Il nostro (x2)
K: Our train:
Il nostro treno (x2)
K: Then Matteo started to reach over, so I said:
M: Ehi che fai? - Hey, what are you doing? Literally:
Ehi - Hey
Che - what
Fai - you do
K: He wanted to have some of my beer, so he said:
M: Mmm…buona la tua birra. - Mmm…your beer is yummy. Literally:
Buona - good
La - the
Tua - your
Birra - beer
K: Birra, like pizza , ends in an a. This helps to tell us that it’s a feminine word. So that’s why we use la tua again here.
I then explained to Matteo:
M : La mia birra. - My beer. Literally:
La - the
Mia - my
Birra - beer
M: Noi inglesi non condividiamo la nostra birra. – We English don’t share our beer.
Noi - We
Inglesi - English
Non - not
Condividiamo - we share
La - the
Nostra - our
Birra - beer
K: As an English person, it has taken a while for me to get used to the fact that Italians will share a bottle of beer with each other. They’ll get together for a football match and pour a tiny amount into different glasses. I find it really stressful because I like to have my own beer
M: It’s the same for me with pizza. When there is one big pizza in the middle and I have to share it with everyone, it’s very difficult for me. This is an important cultural difference Katie and I have discovered: Italians don’t share pizza, the inglesi don’t share beer.
K: Let’s see if you can remember the different words for “my”, “yours”, and “ours”
How would you say “my” for feminine words? Like for “my pizza”? Literally “the my”.
[...]
M: La mia . For example, la mia pizza.
K: And what about yours? Like “your beer”?
[...]
M: La tua . For example, la tua birra.
[...]
K: And how would we say “ours”? For example, “our beer”
[...]
M: La nostra . For example, “la nostra birra”.
[...]
K: If I was talking about a masculine word, how would I say my? Like my passport.
[...]
M: Il mio. For example, il mio passaporto.
K: And how would I say “your” if it was a masculine word?
[...]
M: Il tuo. For example, il tuo passaporto.
K: Lastly, how would we say “ours” with a masculine word?
M: Il nostro. For example, il nostro treno.
K: Let’s listen to the whole conversation again:
M: Ehi che fai?
K: Mmm…buona la tua pizza
M: Esatto, la mia pizza. Noi italiani non condividiamo la nostra pizza.
K: Ehi che fai?
M: Mmm…buona la tua birra.
K: La mia birra. Noi inglesi non condividiamo la nostra birra.
K: In this episode, you’ve learnt the words for “my”, “yours” and “ours”. But you’ll also want to find out how to say other similar words, like “their” and “his” and “her”.
M: Or how you say “your” when you’re using the polite “you”, so you don’t offend anyone.
K: To see all the words together in one place, head over to our website by clicking on the link in the description. Or you can go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 174.
M: See you next time.
K: Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz: Italian Possessive Adjectives
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Italian Possessive Adjectives
Vocabulary
Dov’è il mio passaporto? = Where’s my passport?
Il tuo telefono è scarico = Your phone is out of battery
La nostra valigia è pesante = Our suitcase is heavy
Mia figlia studia medicina = My daughter studies medicine
I miei figli vivono in Australia = My children live in Australia
Mia moglie è ingegnera = My wife is an engineer
Noi italiani non condividiamo la nostra pizza = We Italians don’t share our pizza
Noi inglesi non condividiamo la nostra birra = We English don’t share our beer
È la mia pizza = It’s my pizza
È la mia birra = It’s my beer
Flashcards: Italian Possessive Adjectives
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
