Possessive Pronouns

[AureliaeLacrimae]

In order to understand the possessive pronouns in Latin, you need to have knowledge about adjectives (check out the declension of bonus, bona, bonum and miser, misera, miserum) of the 1st and 2nd declension. They follow the exactly same pattern.

So, here they are:

meus, mea, meum - my

tuus, tua, tuum - your

noster, nostra, nostrum - our

vester, vestra, vestrum - your (plural)

Exception: The only difference is in Vocative of masculine pronoun meus, which isn't me, but mi.

When it comes to her, his, its - Latin uses a different pronoun and is a little specific about it: you have eius in singular in all forms! (no declension!) and eorum for masculinum in plural (no declension!) and earum for femininum in plural (no declension!)

So here's how you decline his father  and    their father:

N  eius pater                            eorum/earum pater

G  eius patri                            eorum/earum patri

D  eius patro                            eorum/earum patro

Ac  eius patrem                        eorum/earum patrem

V  eius pater                            eorum/earum pater

Ab eius patro                            eorum/earum patro

You will notice that pater is in singular. That's because there's only one father! You'd have plural if they had two fathers, for example, but as there's only one - you only use singular form. (I won't talk about multiple fathers...)

These were possessive pronouns. You use them when you wish to say what belongs to you: my book - meum librum, your book - tuum librum, our books - nostri libri, et cetera.

Here are some examples for exercise:

my daughter, her daughter, their daughter, your son, his friend, our master, my country, his war