Possessive

8th grade Unit 1

Possessives

Elaborated by Audry Portilla Baradín

There are different ways to express when something belongs to someone. We can use:

• Possessive Determiners
• Possessive Pronouns
• Possessives ( 's /s')

The Possessive Determiners are the ones we use in front of a noun.

1. My ( for I )
2. His ( for he )
3. Her ( for she )
4. Its ( for it )
5. Their ( for their )
6. Our ( for we )
7. Your ( for you )

Look at the examples:

The pink word is the possessive determiner and the underlined word is a noun.

• This is my car.
• His cellphone is new.
• She says she is going to cut her hair.

• That is its food. Do not touch it!
• Their house is the green one.
• We will sell our computer to buy a new one.
• Your book is not on your desk.

The Possessive Pronouns are the ones we use alone. (we don't need a noun)

1. Mine ( for I )
2. His ( for he )
3. Hers ( for she )
4. Its ( for it ) ***
5. Theirs ( for their )
6. Ours ( for we )
7. Yours ( for you )

Look at the examples

She thinks that this cute dog is theirs, but I am not sure.

A: Is this your pencil? B: Yes, it is mine.

This is not his sweater. It is hers.

Those beds you see over there are ours.

I found this comic book. I think it is yours.

The yellow umbrella is his.

As you can see, the Possessive Pronouns refer to a noun (object, animal) that was mentioned previously in the sentence, text, or conversation.

***Possessive Pronoun: Its

We try not to use the possessive pronoun "its", but we can do it if we add the word "own" after it. 1. "The house seemed asleep yet, as I have said, it had a life of its own." 2. The dog played with the ball as if it was its own. Taken from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/pronouns-possessive-my-mine-your-yours-etc

Possessives ( 's / s' ):

We form possessives by adding -'s at the end of the main noun of the sentence, or just by adding the apostrophe if its a plural noun ending in -s ( -s' ).

Look at the examples:

1. Ana's car is very fast.

Singular nouns

2. The teacher's pencil case is beautiful.

3. Carlos's book is missing. Can you help me find it?

1. The students' classroom is very messy.

Plural nouns

2. The boys' soccer team is getting better.

3. The children's playground is big and funny.

Singular and Plural Nouns

• As you can see there are SINGULAR NOUNS that end with -s, but they are still singular (like some names: Carlos, Jesús, Genesis...). That is why we need to add another "s" after the apostrophe ( - 's ).

• Besides, some PLURAL NOUNS might not end with -s, such as children, people, women, men... In such a case, we NEED to add the "s" after the apostrophe ( -'s ).

of-phrase to express possessive

> We use the of phrase especially when we refer to things.

1. Days Inn is the name of the hotel. (the name belongs to the hotel) 2. We will paint the walls of the house blue. (the walls belong to the house)

> BUT, if things have a connection to people we also use the apostrophe and the s. ( 's / s' = possessive). 1. Germany's economy = the economy of Germany

Taken from: https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/s_of.htm

Possessive Determiners and Pronouns https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_determiners.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_determiners3.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_determiners2.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_pronouns2.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_pronouns4.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_pronouns3.htm Possessive Pronouns https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_pronouns.htm

Let's practice:

Possessives ( 's / s' ) https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/apostrophe_s.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/apostrophe_s3.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/apostrophe_s4.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/apostrophe_s2.htm https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/s_of.htm

THANKS!

Lorem ipsum dolor