Possessive adjectives, antes y después the noun

Estoy estudiando la lección 4.8, Possessive Pronouns, and I'm a bit flustered by when to use a short possessive adjective before the noun and when to use the long possessive adjective after the noun.

¿Por ejemplo, hay una diferencia de importancia entre "tu maleta" y "la maleta tuya"? O "nuestros hijos" y "los hijos nuestros"? It's hard to know how to answer the "Write It" or "Know It" sections when given a phrase like "Her house is very clean". Would that be "Su casa está muy limpia" or "La casa suya está muy limpia" or even "La casa de ella está muy limpia"? Or does it not matter?

(Perdóname for the mixed Spanglish. I'm at a very awkward stage of learning ahora!)

I thought the same thing.  I just decided to say it the other way after I 'revealed'.
It is mildly irritating to get it 'wrong'.

So, maybe add some sort of note to the user.  But RS probably does not want to clutter the screen.  I guess language is a bit messy at times.

¡Hola AdamB66 y TravisB13!

Indeed, the three ways of showing possession (i.e. short possessive adjective, long possessive adjective, and de) can make things a little confusing! As part of our Spanish course review, we've started to put in literal translations to try to make things clearer in the Rocket Reinforcement. For example, a sentence using de ella for "her" should now have a literal translation that says "of her"; similarly, a sentence using suyo for "her" should have a literal translation that says "(of) hers." We hope that these new literal translations will be of help.

As for the difference between the short possessive adjective in tu maleta and the long possessive adjective in la maleta tuya, the difference isn't major; the long form simply puts more emphasis on who is doing the owning. It's a bit like saying "HER suitcase" instead of just "her suitcase." (In case it is helpful: a brief explanation on this was added to the lesson somewhat recently, under the heading "Short vs. Long," and can also be found in the new Action Replay section at the end of the lesson.)

I hope that this helps to clear this matter up! If you have any more feedback or questions on this matter, please do let me know!

Saludos,

Liss