Rules for combined usage of definite article and possessive personal pronoun in Portuguese One of the grammatical matters that Portuguese and Italian are in common is that they both use a combination of a definite article and a possessive personal pronoun to describe the possession. For instance, em português, o meu telefone = my telephone ; a tua casa = your house in italiano, il mio telefono = my telephone ; la tua casa = your house However, such structure does not exist in neither English, nor French, nor German, nor Spanish (according to my best and limited knowledge in all these languages). By referring to the following webpage of the italki database regarding such grammatical structure in Italian, http://www.italki.com/knowledge/wiki-Italian+Pronouns.htm I would like to ask, are there any exceptions where such structure is not adopted? As seen in the webpage, when one expresses a SINGULAR family member in Italian, the above structure is not observed. For instance, mio padre = my father ; mia madre = my mother But, when the family members are in plural, then the combinational structure is needed. For instance, i miei genitori = my parents Hence, does Portuguese also follow the same rules, or are there any additional exceptions of where we should be aware?? Please kindly let me know. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Many thanks to all the respondents who have provided the comments and suggestions. Unfortunately, there seems to be some misunderstanding to what I would like to ask originally. In fact, what I want to know is that, in Portuguese, do we always use the form of "(definite/indefinite article) + (possessive personal pronouns) + (noun)" to express the possession? For instance (as quoted from respondent Thamihw), ** o meu sapato = my shoe ; a minha carteira = my wallet ; (etc.) ** Are there any exceptions, in Portuguese, that we may simply use the form of "(possessive personal pronouns) + (noun)" to express the possession, i.e., without any definite/indefinite article? For instance (as quoted from respondent Wdenira de Fatima), ** meu pai = my father ; minha mãe = my mother ** Should anyone know the exceptions, please kindly inform me in what situation(s) that such exceptions would apply. You may simply modifier the already given answers, should you be one of the respondents. It should be clarified that, at the present stage, I am already aware of the formation/usage of BOTH the definite/indefinite articles (i.e, o / os / a / as; um / uma / uns / umas) AND the possessive personal pronouns (for instance, meu / minha / meus / minhas) with respect to the gender (masculine/feminine) and the quantity (singular/plural). Hence, explanations in this matter are not very necessary. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Good day to all / Bom dia a todos.To Kayleigh: Thank you very much for the comments and for further clarifying the question. I am sorry that I have put up a question considered to be complicated. Well, honestly, as an English speaker, we use only EITHER a definite/indefinite article (the / a / an) OR a possessive personal pronoun (my / your, etc.) before a noun. This is same as in French, German, and Spanish (as far as I know). Hence, it is somehow interesting and a bit strange to see that Portuguese and Italian have this kind of grammatical structure. As I have already noticed the general usage and exceptions in Italian about such grammatical structure (from the wiki-knowledge database as given in the message of the original question), I would like to ask about the respective rules in Portuguese. Thank you very much for the kind attention and for the participation of the discussion.To edu v v: Thank you very much for your answers and the well explained examples. Although there are no strict rules regarding the combinational use of both definite article and possessive personal pronoun, there is generally a necessity of such grammatical structure when the described noun is preceded by certain prepositions (except for a few exceptions, such as omission of feminine definite article after preposition "para"). Thank you all for the interests of my posed questions and many thanks to all respondents for the participations of the discussions. May I wish you all a good weekend. / Que todos tenham un bom fin de semana.