There is no doubt that learning English can be exciting, but mastering it is a whole different story. It comes with challenges like tricky grammar, confusing vocabulary, and awkward sentence structures. One small but powerful tool is possessive pronoun which can smoothen your journey. These are words like my, your, his, and their, which might feel a little insignificant to you, but they play a big role in making sentences clearer and more natural. In our blog below, we will talk about everything related to possessive pronouns, their rules, types, and how to use them effectively. So read on!
Table of Contents
A possessive pronoun is a type of pronoun which we use to show ownership or possession of something or someone. For example, “The red bicycle outside is hers,” here, the word “hers” is being used to show who owns the cycle.
In addition to that, words like mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs replace entire noun phrases when referring to or talking about the possession. For example, “I brought my jacket, but John forgot his,” in this sentence, “his” replaces the noun phrase which is “his jacket” to avoid repetition.
However, do keep in mind that possessive pronouns are different from possessive adjectives like “my” and “your,” which are used to modify the nouns instead of replacing them.
As per Oxford Languages, the possessive pronoun definition is “a pronoun indicating possession, for example, mine, yours, hers, theirs.” similarly, Merriam-Webster defines a possessive pronoun as “a pronoun that derives from a personal pronoun and denotes possession and analogous relationships”
Below are some possessive pronoun examples that will help you use this pronoun better:
Now that you have a better understanding of what is Possessive pronoun, let’s look at its types to understand it better.
Also Read: Pronouns In English
Since possessive pronoun is used to indicate ownership of an object or a thing, they are further categorized into two different types. However, do note that one of them is dependent possessive, which is technically not a pronoun.
But they are very important to understand possession and are generally learned with possessive pronouns for learning purposes:
These are the types of possessive pronouns which generally stand alone in a sentence and do not come before a noun. Instead, they replace the noun of the sentence as well as the possessive adjective.
| Examples | In Sentences |
|---|---|
| Mine | This pencil isn’t yours; it’s mine. |
| Yours | Is this jacket yours or someone else's? |
| His | That bike over there is his. |
| Hers | The red backpack is hers, not mine. |
| Ours | This is our house, so the front yard is ours. |
| Theirs | The blue car is theirs, not the neighbour’s. |
| Its (rarely used in this form) | The company lost its logo, but we found its again in the archives. |
Sometimes also called possessive determiners, possessive pronouns work as adjectives to modify the noun to indicate either possession or ownership.
One of the main rules of possessive pronoun that are dependent is that they cannot stand alone and they need a noun to follow them.
| Examples | In Sentences |
|---|---|
| My | My favorite color is blue. |
| Your | Is this your notebook? |
| His | His car is parked outside. |
| Her | Her brother just graduated from college. |
| Its | The dog wagged its tail excitedly. |
| Our | Our vacation starts next week. |
| Their | Their team won the championship. |
Also Read: Relative Pronoun
There are a few key rules of possessive pronoun that can help you use them much more effectively in your everyday language and help you avoid making mistakes. These rules include:
To make your sentences more concise, and clear and avoid redundancy, you can use possessive pronouns in different ways and for different purposes in your sentences.
However, when we talk about “Possession” to define the role of possessive pronouns, it can either mean the ownership or possession of an object or a thing like a pen, bottle, or book. It can also mean possessions of a figurative kind, like some place or relationship like “my brother” or “his hometown.”
One of the primary rules of possessive pronoun is that they take the place of a noun phrase which includes the owner as well as the things that are owned. This helps shorten and clarify the sentences by using the possessive forms instead of using the nouns again.
For example: Instead of saying “Randall says that the pencil case is Randall’s pencil case” which is too wordy, we can say “Randall says that the pencil case is his.”
Another way to use a possessive pronoun is through the agreement with the antecedent which is a noun that it refers back to. The pronouns need to match the antecedent in:
Some possessive pronoun examples of these include:
Another effective way to use possessive pronoun is to understand that when we use it as a subject, the main verb needs to agree in number based on what is possessed and now who the possessor is. This might sound a little confusing, but below are possessive pronoun examples which can help you understand this better:
Also Read: Reflexive Pronoun
Now, let’s clear up the biggest confusion that most people face; its vs. it’s. Most people get confused about when they need to use the apostrophe and when they don’t.
But don’t worry, even though these two sound similar, the only difference between these two is that they both serve two different purposes.
Its without an apostrophe is in possessive pronoun or the possessive form of it which is used to show ownership or belonging. We use this for things or animals whose gender is unknown or is not specified.
For example: “The cat licked its paw after jumping off the counter.” In this sentence “its” is used because the gender of the cat is not specified.
It’s with an apostrophe is a contraction of it is or it has. We use the apostrophe to replace the missing letter(s), just like in there’s (there is) or what’s (what is).
For example: “It’s raining outside, so bring an umbrella,” “It’s been a long time since we last talked.” Here it’s is used in place of “it is” and “it has’
Note: If you can replace the word with it is or it has, use it’s. If not, then it is most likely it is its.
Also Read: Demonstrative Pronoun
Similar to its vs it’s, both possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives have a different function in a sentence. The main difference between possessive pronoun and possessive adjective is that possessive adjective are words like my, your, his, her, its, our, and their which are used to modify the noun and appear before it in the sentence structure like “my pen.”
On the other hand, possessive pronouns are words like mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs which are used to replace the noun and can stand alone, for example, “this is his.”
Now that you have a better understanding of what is Possessive pronoun, you can solve our worksheet of possessive pronoun below. This will give you a structured practice and more importantly will reinforce your grammar concepts.
In this exercise of this worksheet, you have to choose the correct possessive pronoun to complete each sentences correctly.
1. That phone isn't mine. I think it's _____.
a) His
b) Theirs
c) Yours
d) Hers
2. My parents live in London. This house is _____.
a) His
b) Ours
c) Its
d) Mine
3. The bird built a nest. The nest is clearly _____.
a) Theirs
b) Its
c) Hers
d) Ours
4. Lucy and I share this room. The room is _____.
a) Hers
b) Mine
c) Theirs
d) Ours
5. James has a new bike. The red one is _____.
a) Yours
b) His
c) Mine
d) Its
6. I didn’t bring my lunch today, so Anna gave me _____.
a) Hers
b) Its
c) Yours
d) Mine
7. We adopted a dog. That collar is _____.
a) His
b) Its
c) Ours
d) Theirs
8. You left your jacket here. Is this one ____?
a) Mine
b) Yours
c) His
d) Hers
9. They brought their own snacks, and we brought _____.
a) Theirs
b) Mine
c) Ours
d) Hers
10. This toy belongs to the twins. It’s definitely _____.
a) Theirs
b) Ours
c) His
d) Yours
Answer Key
The next exercise in our possessive pronoun worksheet is error correction. Here, you have to find and correct the possessive pronoun error in each of the sentences below.
Answer Key:
Also Read: New Words
In conclusion, learning possessive pronoun is an important part of English grammar which acts as a shorthand to show ownership or possession. In our blog above, we have talked about everything about this pronoun including possessive pronoun definition, types, examples, and much more. To know more in detail about various Grammatical concepts and improve your English language, you can connect with our experts at Gradding.com for enhanced and tailored learning. Connect today!
Possessive pronouns are words like mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs which show ownership or possession. Additionally, it replaces the noun to avoid repetition. An example of a possessive pronoun is “this chocolate is mine.”
The 12 possessive pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, my, your, her, our, and their. We use the first seven independently in a sentence, while the last five are possessive adjectives which we use before nouns.
The main difference between possessive pronouns and reflexive pronouns is that possessive pronouns are words like his, and ours which show ownership, for example, “She brought her book.” On the other hand, reflexive pronouns are words like himself, themselves which refer back to the subject of the sentence, for example, “She taught herself to play.”
The difference between possessive and relative pronouns is that possessive shows ownership (e.g., mine, hers). Whereas relative pronouns connect clauses and refer to nouns mentioned earlier (e.g., who, which, that). For example, “The phone that rings is hers.”
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