Agreement with Spanish Possessive Adjectives

Activity Overview

Many students know adjective agreement rules and can apply them. However, the agreement of possessive adjectives can prove more challenging. Many students are inclined to think that the possessive adjective agrees with the possessor. So, if it is “my book”, then the student may think the form of “my” in Spanish is dictated by the speaker’s gender and number. This is not correct! Instead, the student must clearly understand that the form of “my” is dictated by the possession, in this case, the book. To cement this understanding, students often need to be led through examples and exercises that challenge the rule and the student’s natural inclination.

This storyboard uses a comparatively challenging example. The possessive adjective nuestro was chosen for the example because it has all four forms, rather than just two. Students should note that while the possessor is plural and feminine, because the possession (the book) is singular and masculine, nuestro must be in its singular and masculine form. Student tendency is to make nuestro feminine and plural because of the two girls that own the book.

The focus of this activity is learning adjective agreement as it applies to possessive adjectives.

Activity 1: Student creates a storyboard whose first cell explains and illustrates the grammar rule with one possessive adjective of the student’s choosing. In the following cells, the student writes simple sentences with markups that show the relationships between the student’s various choices in grammar.

Activity 2 - Advanced: Student creates a narrative storyboard that uses possessive adjectives in context, clearly demonstrates the agreement rules taught, and illustrates student understanding. Student includes markups to show their reasoning.