Possessive adjectives in Italian agree with the thing possessed, and not the possessor. For example a man could just as correctly say, “ecco la mia borsa,” “here is my bag,” as a woman could. In this case the form of the possessive adjective, la mia, is dictated by the number and gender of the thing possessed, la borsa.
Following is a complete chart of possessive adjectives with some more examples:
masculine sing. feminine sing. masculine plural feminine plural
* See Section 15, “Forms of address” for more on the trend away from capitalization of Lei forms
il mio libro my book
la tua penna your pen
i suoi libri his/her books
le vostre penne your pens
Attenzione: the possessive adjective loro (their/theirs) is invariable, it never changes form. Only the article before it will agree with the thing possessed. E.g.,
il loro libro their book
la loro penna their pen
i loro libri their books
le loro penne their pens
With family members (but only with singular, unmodified family members), the article is dropped and only the possessive adjective is used. E.g.,
tuo padre = your father
nostro genero = our son-in-law
sua zia = his/her aunt
ATTENZIONE: The rule explained immediately above is not applicable (that is, the article will still be used before the possessive) if:
1) the possessive pronoun is loro
il loro padre = their father
la loro zia = their aunt
2) the family member is modified by a suffix or by an ajdective
il nostro fratellino = our little brother
la tua cara sorella = your dearsister
3) the family members are in the plural form
i miei cugini = my cousins
i suoi zii = his/her aunts and uncles
But if the family member is modified (or plural), then you treat them as if they were any regular object. In other words, you will use the definite article and the possessive adjective if you are speaking about plural family members or modified family members. E.g.,
il nostro fratellino
our little brother
la tua cara sorella
your dear sister
i miei cugini
my cousins
i suoi zii
his/her aunts and uncles
The following three words are considered modified versions of madre and padre so they follow this exception too: mamma (mother), babbo (father), papà (father). E.g.,
la tua mamma
your mother
il suo babbo
his/her father
il vostro papà
your father
Attenzione! The word for “family,” famiglia, is treated like a regular noun, e.g., la mia famiglia, la sua famiglia, etc.