Possessive Article
When an article is associated with a person, does the article ("el", "los", "la", "las") act like a possessive pronoun ("su", "sus")?
For example, consider the following sentence: "Cuando Max empezaba a rezagarse, Roland aminoró la velocidad hasta detenerse junto a una gran fuente de piedra."
In English, this translates to:
"When Max began to lag (behind), Roland reduced the speed to stop next to a large stone fountain."
In the sentence, "la velocidad" refers to "the speed." But, does it also refer to Roland's speed, such as the following sentence would suggest??:
"Roland aminoró su velocidad."
Furthermore, I have seen use of
"extendió la mano"
, which refers to
"(He/She/It) extended (his/her/its) hand."
What are your thoughts on the usage of the article as a possessive pronoun in Spanish?
Thank you.
2 Answers
A great question, one I don't feel fully qualified to answer, but I do have a couple thoughts. It seems to me that in Spanish, a lot of the time, when it is obvious who the object/body part belongs to, the pronoun would be redundant. For example, extendió su mano is a little redundant, as obviously the person in question isn't likely to extend someone else's hand. I think though, as long as the verb isn't reflexive, you would be just fine saying "su" or any other possessive pronoun you might want. The same idea of redundancy applies for his speed. However, I know you don't use the possessive pronoun for reflexive verbs such as cepillarse los dientes. In that case, the fact that it's reflexive tells you who's hand it is, much as I was already saying about redundancy. You can think of it like a "possessive article" if it helps you, but I don't know if I feel qualified to give you a more exact answer.
Welcome to the forum. After you post your own attempts, we can help with corrections.
