To show possession
To indicate who something belongs to, we use:
| Latin |
Means |
Declines like |
| meus, mea, meum |
my |
novus, -a, -um |
| tuus, tua, tuum |
your, yours (one person) |
novus, -a, -um |
| suus, sua, suum |
his, her, its, their (own) |
novus , -a, -um |
| noster, nostra, nostrum |
our, ours |
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum |
| vester , vestra, vestrum |
your, yours (two or more people) |
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum |
These decline like the adjectives novus and pulcher, so you will be familiar with the endings. They are fully declined for you in the Grammar table
They agree with whatever is owned in
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For example
anima mea my soul
The Latin word for soul is anima, -e (f.).
A soul is feminine, regardless of whether it belongs to a woman or a man.
In our example, ‘soul’ is feminine, nominative, singular and therefore ‘my’ is too.
| pater noster |
our father |
nominative, masculine, singular |
| testamentum suum |
his/her will |
nominative, neuter, singular |
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 |
Latin document points |
The king or queen often referred to himself or herself as ‘we’ (nos) and to his or her possessions as ‘our’ (noster).
in curia nostra in our court (phrase used by king/queen for the royal court)
|
You will also find eius used for ‘of him, of her, of it’ and eorum, earum, eorum (masculine, feminine and neuter plural respectively) used for ‘of them, theirs’.
| Edwardus et uxor eius finem de duobus solidis debent |
Edward and his wife owe a fine of two shillings. |