so I was reading a Spanish-language subreddit and I started to notice how little of certain constructions I was taught are actually used. Like "el/la suyo/a, el/la mio/a", etc. and stuff involving different tenses of verbs in the subjunctive/conditional -- I've never heard anyone say 'volviese' or 'hiciera', etc. So maybe do a post on that?
The el suyo or la suya thing is part of the possessives.
The regular possessives that you see are:
su/sus = his, her, their, its / Yours
vuestro/a = your [belonging to vosotros “you all”]
These precede a noun, and only nuestro/a and vuestro/a have to change for the gender of something.
Es mi libro. = It’s my book.Son mis libros. = They’re my books
Es tu carta. = It’s your letter.Son tus cartas. = They’re your letters.
Es su hijo. = It’s his/her/their son.Es su hija. = It’s his/her/their daughter.Son sus hijos. = They’re his/her/their children. [hijos being “sons” if all male, or “children” if a mix of sons and daughters]Son sus hijas. = They’re his/her/their daughters.
Es nuestra casa. = It’s our house.Son nuestras casas. = They’re our houses.
The other possessives are ones that take the place of nouns, or are used for specific emphasis.
suyo/a = his, hers, theirs, its / Yours
vuestro/a = yours [belonging to vosotros “you all”]
The nuestro/a and vuestro/a don’t change, but the others do.
They often appear when the noun is already known so you aren’t repeating it.
In the case that they do appear with a noun, it’s always BEHIND the noun instead of in front like the mi, tu, su would normally be.
Es mi libro. = It’s my book.Es mío. = It’s mine.
Es mi casa. = It’s my house.Es mía. = It’s mine.
Son mis cuadernos. = They’re my notebooks.Son míos. = They’re mine.
Son mis notas. = They’re my notes.Son mías. = They’re mine.
Es tu teléfono. = It’s your phone.Es tuyo. = It’s yours.
Es su problema. = It’s their problem.Es suyo. = It’s theirs.
Es nuestra respuesta. = It’s our answer.Es nuestra. = It’s ours.
For emphasis you can include the noun. The most readily available example is la culpa “fault/blame”
Es mi culpa. = It’s my fault.La culpa es mía. = The blame is mine. / It’s my fault. / I’m the one at fault.
Por tu culpa… = Because of you… / Because of what you did… [lit. “because of your blame”]Por culpa tuya… = Because of you…
Por mi culpa… = Because of me… / It’s my fault…Por culpa mía… = Because of what I did… / It was my own fault…
Another common one is el padrenuestro the prayer “Our Father” which goes Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo “Our Father who art in Heaven”
You do sometimes see it with the article el/la or los/las though that’s more emphatic, like the thing could belong to anyone but you’re saying “that one’s mine”. They tend to read as “my own” or “your own” or something like that.
Todos tienen sus celulares, pero se me olvidó el mío. = Everyone has their cellphones but I forgot my own.
The -iese/-iera or -ase/-ara endings are imperfect subjunctive endings.
The use of -iese or -ase are more common in Spain, while the -iera and -ara endings are more common in Latin America.
There’s a reason for that, and they do mean different things historically but that is a very complicated subject, and it requires some knowledge of subjunctive mood in general.
Si volviese… = If I were to return…Si volviera… = If I returned… / If I were to return…
Si lo hiciese… = If I were to do it…Si lo hiciera… = If I did it… / If I were to do it…
The imperfect subjunctive sort of reads like that, but it’s more advanced Spanish grammar since it deals with hypothetical situations, or subjunctive happening in the past. And usually conditional tense shows up with it.
