We will learn in this lesson about possessive pronouns, their similarities with possessive adjectives, and how to use them in sentences.
Possessive pronouns
We use possessive pronouns to indicate ownership of the noun or the thing that comes after them.
There are eight possessive pronouns in ِEnglish:
|
Mine |
First person/singular |
|
Yours |
Second person/singular |
|
His |
Third person/singular/male |
|
Hers |
Third person/singular/female |
|
Its |
Third person/singular/inanimate |
|
Ours |
First person/plural |
|
Yours |
Second person/plural |
|
Theirs |
Third person/plural |
Examples:
| Those books are mine. |
| This house is yours. |
| This car is his. |
| This phone is hers. |
| This tail is its. |
| Those cups are ours. |
| This bag is yours. |
| This table is theirs. |
Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives are always followed by a noun. We can distinguish them from possessive pronouns since possessive adjectives come before the noun, while possessive pronouns come after the noun.
There are eight possessive adjectives in the language:
|
My |
First person/singular |
|
Your |
Second person/singular |
|
His |
Third person/singular/male |
|
Her |
Third person/singular/female |
|
Its |
Third person/singular/inanimate |
|
Our |
First person/plural |
|
Your |
Second person/plural |
|
Their |
Third person/plural |
Examples:
|
Those are my books. |
|
It is your house. |
|
It is his car. |
|
It is her phone. |
|
I have a book. Its color is red. |
|
These are our cups. |
|
It is your bag. |
|
It is their table. |
Possessive nouns
There is another way of showing ownership of something in English. We can add ('s) to the end of a noun that owns something. But we must distinguish singular nouns from plural nouns because there is a difference in applying the (s).
Examples of singular nouns:
| Brad’s car |
| Suzi’s pens |
Examples of plural nouns:
|
The girls’ home |
|
The boys’ jackets |
At the end of this lesson, we familiarized ourselves with possessive pronouns and the difference between them and possessive adjectives. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can share them in the comments section below.
Exercises
1- Complete these sentences with possessive nouns.
1- This pen belongs to Tom. → …. pen.
2- That house belongs to Sarah. → …. house.
3- These cards belong to the boys. → …. cards.
4- The car belongs to our friends. → …. car.
2- Choose the correct answer.
1- This is mine.
(possessive pronoun, possessive adjective)
2- It is my bed.
(possessive pronoun, possessive adjective)
3- The house is ours.
(possessive pronoun, possessive adjective)
4- The banans are yours.
(possessive pronoun, possessive adjective)
5- They are their phones.
(possessive pronoun, possessive adjective)
Answers
First question:
1- Tom’s
2- Sarah’s
3- The boys’
4- Our friends’
Second question:
1- possessive pronoun
2- possessive adjective
3- possessive pronoun
4- possessive pronoun
5- possessive adjective