possession(spanish)
Rosa is my cousin
Rosa es prima de mi or Rosa es prima de yo?
2 Answers
You would normally say....prima mía or mi prima.
the de+pronoun forms for possession are normally used for 3rd person...su, sus, suyo(s), suya(s) which can be ambiguous and sometimes needs clarification by adding the prepositional phrase (de él, de ella, de usted and the plurals de ellos, etc.)
In general, mí is the prepositional pronoun, but there are instances where yo is used (after certain prepositions) and when two pronouns are used together (él y yo)
Using de
If you are using a name or noun to refer to the person or entity that is in possession, the prepositional phrase of de followed by the noun is used, as in el libro de Juan, John's book. A few examples:
- Ver el perfil de Pablo. See Pablo's profile.
- Él no cree en el movimiento de mujeres. He doesn't believe in the women's movement.
- Es la madre de la estudiante. She is the student's mother.
It similarly is possible to indicate possession by using de followed by a pronoun, such as in de él, but such usage is somewhat uncommon except when the use of a determiner would be ambiguous in the context. For example, if su libro ("his, her, your or their book") would be ambiguous, we could say el libro de él or el libro de ella ("his book" or "her book").
Since mi or mío is not ambiguous, you would not normally use either de mí or de yo.
Rosa es mi prima
