grammar.pronouns.relative-cuyo

Cuyo: 'whose', agreeing with the thing owned

Cuyo/cuya/cuyos/cuyas means 'whose' and agrees with what is possessed, not the possessor: la empresa cuyos empleados...

grammarC1Vérifiév0.1.0

Explication

Cuyo means 'whose' and behaves like a possessive bridge between a noun and what it owns. Crucially, it agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor: el autor cuya novela ganó ('the author whose novel won') — cuya because novela is feminine, even if the author is male. Forms: cuyo, cuya, cuyos, cuyas.

It is formal and almost entirely written. In conversation, speakers route around it with a relative clause: el autor que escribió la novela que ganó, or la empresa de la que no recuerdo el nombre.

The classic error to avoid is *que su: *el autor que su novela ganó is wrong — that is exactly the gap cuyo fills. So 'the company whose name I forget' is la empresa cuyo nombre olvido, never *la empresa que su nombre olvido.

Exemples

Es una empresa cuyo nombre no recuerdo.
It's a company whose name I don't remember.

Région: global

La casa cuyas ventanas dan al mar es esa.
The house whose windows face the sea is that one.

Région: global

Es un proyecto cuyos resultados todavía no se ven.
It's a project whose results aren't visible yet.

Règles liées