In my book on spanish grammar in listing the possessive adjectives and pronouns, for "your" it has in brackets for example:
Sing. Plural
tu tus your (=de ti)
su sus his, her, its, your (=de usted)
and similarly for the poss. pronouns.
It does not explain how one uses this. Is this an alternative to tu or su, or should one use it instead for "yours"?
Alan
Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns

Alan-LaCala
October 16, 2006

taalibeen
October 16, 2006
In Spanish, the possessive pronoun agrees in number with the object(s) being possessed.
For instance:
Eso es tu carro? (Is that your car?)
Esos son tus carros? (Are those your cars?)
Eso es su lapiz. (That is his pencil)
Esos son sus lapices. (Those are his pencils)

Alan-LaCala
October 16, 2006
Thanks, but perhaps I did not make my question clear. It is the "de ti" in brackets I am concerned with. Is that what I use?
Alan

taalibeen
October 17, 2006
Oh okay,
In this case, the ti and usted in "de ti" and "de usted" are prepositional pronouns, because they follow the preposition "de" which means "of, from."
The only pronouns that change when following prepositions are for Yo(mi) and Tu(ti).
The rest stay the same.
Now, as for the use in what you mentioned, the person was saying that when speaking of the second person possesive pronouns, tu and tus is used when referring to a person that you woud address informally, therefore tu and tus are "from ti" (de ti).
When addressing someone formally, you would use su or sus "from usted" (de usted).
Does that help?

Alan-LaCala
October 17, 2006
Still not completely clear.
To say "your car is dirty", do I say " Tu coche estás limpio".
Or "El coche de ti estás limpio", or BOTH?
Similarly, "Su coche está limpio" OR El coche de usted está limpio"
Alan

nohablo
October 17, 2006
I could be way off base here, but I've never seen "de tí" used to mean "your." My guess is that the grammar book is explaining that "your (familiar)" means "of you (familiar)." I can't imagine why it would put it that way, though. That seems more confusing than helpful. Basically, then, I'm agreeing with taalibeen, though I think he did a much better job than your grammar book. Perhaps you should get a new book! :D

taalibeen
October 17, 2006
Tu coche *está* limpio - the verb agrees with the owned object, not the owner.
As nohablo said, and as I confirmed with my fiancée, it is VERY awkward to use "de ti" or "de anything" to express possesion.

nohablo
October 17, 2006
[quo]*Quote from * taalibeen
As nohablo said, and as I confirmed with my fiancée, it is VERY awkward to use "de ti" or "de anything" to express possesion.[/quo]
Just to clarify one thing, I think when taalibeen says "de anything," he's talking about pronouns, especially first- and second-person pronouns. Nouns, especially names, are a different matter. To say *Maria's car is clean*, you'd say *El coche _de Maria_ está limpio.*

taalibeen
October 17, 2006
Exacto

Alan-LaCala
October 17, 2006
[quo]*Quote:*
That seems more confusing than helpful. [/quo]
Hear, hear.
Thanks for your help.
Alan