The possessive article everywhere (ale mele și ale tale, alor mei)

Right after the noun, or with an article

A genitive or a possessive attaches straight to a noun that has the definite article: cartea Mariei, prietenul meu. Wherever it cannot attach that way, the possessive article steps in. It agrees with the thing owned, never with the owner:

Where it appears

• after a noun with un, o or niște: o colegă *a Mariei*;
• when an adjective stands between the noun and the owner: casa veche *a bunicilor*;
• after a fi, or standing alone for the noun: e *a mea, dar **al nostru e mai mare*;
• before every owner after the first.

Two owners, two articles

Only the first owner touches the noun. The second one is separated from it by și or sau, so it needs its own article, matched to the thing owned: cărțile mele *și ale tale*, *nunta Anei și a lui Mihai. Keep it even when the second owner is a short possessive like *tale.

To my folks: alor mei

Ai mei (literally mine) is everyday Romanian for my folks: my parents, my family. In the genitive and the dative it becomes alor mei, the same for every gender: cadoul *alor tăi (your folks' gift), le-am spus **alor mei (I told my folks). As with any dative, the pronoun *le doubles it. Alor also replaces ai / ale whenever a plural possessive pronoun is in the genitive or dative: copiilor mei și *alor tăi* (to my children and to yours). Only the plural has a genitive-dative form of its own.