Possessivbegleiter mit Artikel

Italian possessives work differently from English "my, your, his" in two ways: they usually come with the definite article, and they agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.

La mia macchina è rossa. - My car is red. I nostri amici abitano a Verona. - Our friends live in Verona.

Agreement with the thing, not the person

English "his" and "her" follow the owner. Italian suo / sua follows the noun:

• Marco e sua madre - Marco and his mother (sua because madre is feminine)
• Giulia e suo padre - Giulia and her father (suo because padre is masculine)

So il suo libro can be his book, her book, or your book if you are speaking formally to someone with Lei. Context decides; if it does not, Italians say il libro di Marco. English speakers who choose suo for a man and sua for a woman are applying the English rule.

Family members in the singular: no article

With a single relative, the article drops: mio padre - my father, tua madre, sua sorella, nostro zio. The article comes back:

• in the plural: i miei fratelli - my brothers, le tue cugine;
• with loro: il loro figlio - their son;
• when the noun is modified or affectionate: la mia sorella maggiore - my older sister, la mia mamma, il mio papà.

"A friend of mine"

Italian puts the possessive after un / una: un mio amico - a friend of mine, una sua collega - a colleague of hers. And after essere the article is often dropped: Di chi è questa borsa? - È mia. - Whose bag is this? - It's mine.