Breakdown of Los niños siempre olvidan sus guantes.
el niño
the boy
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
siempre
always
el guante
glove
olvidar
to forget
Questions & Answers about Los niños siempre olvidan sus guantes.
If the current lesson is about possessive pronouns like los suyos, why does this sentence use sus instead?
Because sus is a possessive adjective, which means it sits right next to the noun it describes (sus guantes or their gloves). You would use the possessive pronoun los suyos if you dropped the word guantes and just wanted to say theirs. For example: Los niños siempre olvidan los suyos means The children always forget theirs.
Why is it sus guantes and not su guantes? Doesn't the word their refer to one group of children?
In Spanish, possessive words must match the plural or singular state of the thing being owned, not the owners! Because guantes (gloves) is plural, you have to use the plural sus. You would use sus for plural items whether we are talking about one child's gloves (his/her gloves) or a hundred children's gloves (their gloves).
Could sus mean something other than their in a different sentence?
I sometimes see olvidar used with the pronoun se. Why isn't it se olvidan here?
The verb to forget can be used in two different ways in Spanish: olvidar or olvidarse de. This sentence uses the first option, which doesn't need a reflexive pronoun. If you wanted to use the second option, you would have to add both se and de, like this: Los niños siempre se olvidan de sus guantes. Both ways are very common and mean the exact same thing!
Learn Los niños siempre olvidan sus guantes and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free