Who does 'sus' refer to?

Question

Hi,In the sentence, "Los pájaros son sus animales favoritos.", how can you tell who 'sus' is without a prompt?Thanks.Colin

Accepted Answer

Hola Collin
"sus" can be referring to different pronouns: her, his, your formal, their
We always need a reference to know who the possessive is referring to. 
In the lesson we have this sentence translating sus as "your formal" as in for usted, just to show that it can be referring to that pronoun:

Los pájaros son sus animales favoritos. [Usted]
Birds are your favourite animals. ["your" formal]

But we also have this other sentence, referring to "her":

Lucía tiene sus libros.
Lucía has her books.

Saludos,
Inma

Answer

Hola Colin
yes indeed! It could be referring to all subjects mentioned before, so:

Los pájaros son sus animales favoritos. 
Birds are his/her/their/your (formal) favourite animals.

Inma

Answer

Thanks Inma.The reason I asked is that the lesson states that you should be able to work it out from the context but I couldn't. Could it not be any one of the possibilities?Regards,Colin

Answer

Colín, I think "the context" refers to the rest of the conversation you are having about the birds, if this was a full discussion in real life, not anything you can tell from that isolated sentence.

Answer

I think sus here refers to your and its plural bcoz of favoritos is also plural. I do' know but I guess.

Answer

I think sus here refers to your and its plural bcoz of favoritos is also plural. I do' know but I guess.