Mandarin · Chapter 3 · Lesson 2 · Grammar primer
Possession with de
Prescribed by the AQA specification.
The short version
Drop the 的 (de) for people you are close to
Objects keep it: 我的电话 (wǒ de diàn huà), 他的车 (tā de chē). Family, close friends and your own institutions lose it: 我妈 (wǒ mā), 我爸 (wǒ bà), 我哥 (wǒ gē), 我朋友 (wǒ péng yǒu), 我们公司 (wǒ men gōng sī). Keeping 的 (de) there is not wrong so much as slightly formal and distancing, which is rarely what you meant to say about your mum.
我妈 wǒ mā
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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24-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
Lesson 2 of 14 in this chapter