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Mis calcetines son negros, pero los de mi hermana son blancos.

Mis calcetines son negros, pero los de mi hermana son blancos.
My socks are black, but my sister's are white.
From Lesson 139:Avoiding repetition (el de, la de, los de, las de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Mis calcetines son negros, pero los de mi hermana son blancos.

ser
to be
de
from / of
pero
but
la hermana
the sister
los
the (masculine plural)
negro
black
blanco
white
mi
my
el calcetín
sock

Questions & Answers about Mis calcetines son negros, pero los de mi hermana son blancos.

How does los de mi hermana translate to 'my sister's'?
In English, we use an apostrophe-'s' to show possession, but Spanish doesn't do this. Instead of repeating the noun to say los calcetines de mi hermana (the socks of my sister), Spanish drops the word calcetines and just keeps the article los. So, los de mi hermana literally means 'the ones of my sister'.
Why do we use los instead of las or el before de mi hermana?
The definite article has to match the gender and number of the noun it replaces. Here, it is replacing calcetines (socks), which is a masculine plural noun. If we were talking about shirts (camisas, which is feminine plural), it would be las de mi hermana.
Why do negros and blancos both end in -os?
Because they are describing calcetines, which is masculine and plural. Even in the second half of the sentence where the noun is left out and replaced by los, the adjective blancos still has to agree with that hidden word.
Why does the sentence start with Mis instead of Mi?
Possessive words like mi (my) have to match the number of the thing you own. Since calcetines is plural, mi becomes mis. Later in the sentence, we see mi hermana using the singular mi because you are only talking about one sister.

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