el seu
“el seu” — his, her, their in Valencian. Pronoun, level A1, topic — pronouns. One form covers his, her and their — the context and the owner's noun decide. Feminine: la seua. In a live sentence: “El seu cotxe és nou” — His car is new. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Valencian course.
In short
| Written in Valencian | el seu |
| Translation | his, her, their |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
One form covers his, her and their — the context and the owner's noun decide. Feminine: la seua
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- El seu cotxe és nouHis car is new
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- joISpeakers usually drop it: the verb ending already says who acts. Jo appears for emphasis
- tuyou (informal)People switch to tu quickly here — even with a shopkeeper. Moving to vostè signals distance, not default politeness
- vostèyou (polite)The polite you, for strangers and elders. The verb with it is third person: vostè és — literally you is he
- ellheWorks for things too when they are masculine — grammar follows the noun's gender, not its animateness
- ellasheThe plural elles is for women only; ells covers men and mixed company
- nosaltresweNo gender: one we for men and women alike — simpler here than in Spanish
- ellstheyells covers men and mixed company; elles is women only. One man is enough to pick ells
- el meumyThe masculine form; before a feminine noun it turns into la meva. Articles come with it, as with every noun
- el teuyour (informal)The tu counterpart. For a feminine thing: la teua — with the Valencian -ua ending
- el nostreourOurs, masculine. Feminine: la nostra. No extra article is needed before it
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “his, her, their” in Valencian?
One form covers his, her and their — the context and the owner's noun decide. Feminine: la seua
- How do you say “they” in Valencian?
ells covers men and mixed company; elles is women only. One man is enough to pick ells
- How do you say “you (polite)” in Valencian?
The polite you, for strangers and elders. The verb with it is third person: vostè és — literally you is he
- How do you say “our” in Valencian?
Ours, masculine. Feminine: la nostra. No extra article is needed before it
- How do you say “we” in Valencian?
No gender: one we for men and women alike — simpler here than in Spanish
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “his, her, their” in Valencian?
«el seu». In a live sentence: “El seu cotxe és nou” — His car is new. Pronoun, level A1, from the set “pronouns”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
One form covers his, her and their — the context and the owner's noun decide. Feminine: la seua. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.