Spanish · Chapter 4 · Lesson 11 · Grammar primer
Possessive adjectives
mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro - and the difference between 'my' and 'mine'.
The short version
Body parts take the article, not the possessive
Spanish drops the possessive for body parts and clothing and uses the definite article with a reflexive or indirect pronoun instead. Me duele la cabeza, se lavó las manos, ponte la chaqueta. Me duele mi cabeza parses fine and sounds foreign: the pronoun has already told everyone whose head it is.
Me duele la cabeza.
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