Possessives · fc392782dfcfa8fdbcd4d48d86aa0bac

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Oh My!

In English we say my cake, my dog, etc., but in Italian you’d say la mia torta and il mio cane. That’s because torta is feminine and cane is masculine. The same goes for your, his, her, its, our, and their.

Masculine	Feminine
il mio pomodoro my tomato	la mia torta my cake
il tuo biscotto your (singular) cookie	la tua patata your (singular) potato
il suo riso his / her / its rice	la sua cucina his / her / its kitchen
il nostro cuoco our cook	la nostra pasta our pasta
il vostro panino your (plural) sandwich	la vostra banana your (plural) banana
il loro pranzo their lunch	la loro cena their dinner

When you talk about more than one thing, you need to use different words. But don't worry! You've already seen how to change some of them.

Masculine
i miei i tuoi i suoi i nostri i vostri i loro	panini sandwiches

Feminine
le mie le tue le sue le nostre le vostre le loro	banane bananas

Have you noticed? Loro never changes!

Italian Sounds

In Italian, sc sounds just like English sh when followed by e or i. In all other cases, sc sounds like sk in English.

pesce​
as in “shed”

scimmia
as in “ship”

biscotto
as in “desk”

Mine, Mine, Mine

In English, we can say This is my cat or The cat is mine. It’s the same with Italian!

As you can see, in Italian the only difference is that you have to include il or la before words like mio, tuo, and suo to say my, your, her, etc. Usually, you don't do that when you want to say mine, yours, hers, etc.​