Possessives
Oh my!
In Portuguese, words like my and our change their form depending on the noun they’re referring to.
Minha gata come peixe.
My cat eats fish.
Meu gato come peixe.
My cat eats fish.
Minhas gatas comem peixe.
My cats eat fish.
Meus gatos comem peixe.
My cats eat fish.
You can also use o, os, a and as before words like my or our.
Ela lê o nosso livro.
She reads our book.
Hold your horses!
The words seu and sua can mean a lot of things: your, his, her or their!
seu gato → your cat / his cat / her cat / their cat
sua casa → your home / his home / her home / their home
sua casa → your home / his home / her home / their home
Notice that seu gets used with masculine nouns, while sua gets used with feminine.
Since seu and sua can translate to your, his, her, or their, some native speakers prefer to say teu and tua (which also mean your). That’s less confusing!
Your or yours?
In English, we say your cake and the cake is yours, but in Portuguese you say seu bolo and o bolo é seu.
Seu is the same in both cases! That’s a piece of cake!
Minha gata bebe leite.
My cat drinks milk.
A gata é minha.
The cat is mine.
Nossos gatos bebem leite.
Our cats drink milk..
Os gatos são nossos.
These cat are ours