Relative Adjectives Like "Cuyo" in Spanish

Quick Answer

Relative adjectives like cuyorefer to a noun previously mentioned in a sentence (the fancy word for this is antecedent) and introduce a relative clause. Relative adjectives are very useful for providing additional information about something or someone that you have already mentioned.

Cuyo Forms

Cuyo, which translates to whose, always agrees with the noun it refers to in gender and number and has four different forms.

Masculine Singular	Masculine Plural	Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural
cuyo	cuyos	cuya	cuyas

Cuyo contrasts with relative pronouns because it agrees in number and gender with the possessed noun, not the possessor. For example, in the first sentence below, cuyo agrees with gato (the possessed noun), not hermana (the possessor).

Cuyo Examples

examples
Es mi hermana cuyo gato se fue. It's my sister whose cat ran away.
Los niños, cuyas manos están sucias, tienen que lavarse. The children, whose hands are dirty, need to wash up.
Esta es la familia cuya casa es tan grande. This is the family whose house is so big.
Mi vecino, cuyos gatos siempre me molestan, está en Francia. My neighbor, whose cats always annoy me, is in France.
Taylor es la artista cuyas obras están en Nueva York. Taylor is the artist whose art is in New York.