miei

Miei is the masculine plural form of the Italian possessive adjective mio, used to indicate possession by the speaker. It agrees with the noun it modifies in gender and number and is placed before that noun. It corresponds to the English "my" when the noun is masculine and plural. The feminine plural form is mie.

In practice, miei is used with masculine plural nouns such as amici, libri, or collezioni. Examples include i miei amici (my friends) and i miei libri (my books). For feminine plural nouns, the corresponding form is mie, as in le mie sorelle (my sisters) or le mie amiche (my female friends). The possessive adjective is typically accompanied by a definite article in standard Italian, producing forms like i miei libri or le mie note.

Etymology and overview: miele, mio, and their forms derive from Latin meus, meaning "my." Miei is part of the broader Italian possessive system, which expresses ownership by the speaker and agrees with the noun it modifies in gender and number. While primarily used as a determiner before a noun, the form can also appear in a pronominal sense when the noun is understood from context, as in questa frase: Questi quaderni non sono i tuoi; sono i miei. In sum, mie and its masculine counterpart miei are core elements of Italian possessive agreement for first-person ownership.