"It is my bottle."

Translation: É a minha garrafa.

[SalmPez]

how do i know when to use meu and when to use minha?

[marigoods]

Everything has a gender in Portuguese. Meu=for male Minha=for female. Normally the nouns ending whit an A will be Female. Minha garrafA. Meu casaco.

[LuisRodrix]

I was about to ask that. Thanks for answer!

[lindseykgibb]

It also accepted "É minha garrafa." Which is the more common usage?

[erudis]

Both are equally common. The "a" is not stressed anyway, so in everyday speech you might not even hear it if someone speaks fast enough.

[rdpioneer]

in a grammar test.. are both acceptable?

[Har29vey]

The program didn´t like "É a garrafa minha". Is this not customary?

[marigoods]

No, you would need the verb between the noum and the possessive, like in: a garrafa é minha

[RoccoDuo]

Could it be "Issa é a minha garrafa"?

[marigoods]

No. Issa is not a word in portuguese. It could be ISSO. Since, roughly saying IT=ISSO. But in this case ISSO would be used in a ironic/depreciative way. It is hard to explain writing

[RoccoDuo]

Obrigado!

[cainemac]

Thank you. The Meu vs. Minha explanation has helped me a lot

[kryde]

And me!

[JayMac1676]

Me too!