Possessives

Possessive Adjectives

Here you will find:

*the definition of the possessive adjectives *an explanation and examples of each possessive adjective *the position of the possessive adjectives in a sentence *possessive adjective agreement *use of plural or singular nouns with possessive adjectives

Objective

By the end of this topic, you will be able to write sentences using possessive adjectives to express ownership of people and things.

Possessive adjectives are used to show possession or ownership of things, animals or people according to the subject.

A possessive adjective is an adjective that is used to show ownership. It comes before a noun in the sentence and lets us know that one person or thing belongs to another, or is associated with another. These adjectives do not have singular or plural, nor male and female versions– you use the same one.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns can be confusing. Remember that a possessive adjective is located before the word that it describes. Whereas, a possessive pronoun is used in place of a noun.

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Definition Possessive adjectives are words used to show possession - always followed by a singular or plural noun. They show property, a sense of belonging or ownership to a specific person, animal or thing. They do not have male and female versions– gender. Here is the list of the possessive adjectives used in the English language: my, your, our, its, her, his, and their. Each one corresponds to a subject pronoun.

Examples

We always use my instead of the pronoun I. We use my for singular or plural nouns. We use my for a man or a woman.

1. My

My name is Joe. My name is Anna. My dog is black. My cats are white.

Examples

We always use your instead of the pronoun you in singular or plural. We use your for male or female owners.

2. Your

Your name is long Christopher (a male subject). What is your e-mail Sharon? (a female subject) Girls, can you write your phone numbers in the list? (plural female subjects). Please boys, write in the list your first names and your e-mails (plural male subjects).

Examples

3. His

We use his when the subject is a male. We use his for plural or singular nouns.

What is his name? Harry lives in Paris, his house is near the Eiffel tower (singular). Homer likes cars, his cars are four sport ones (plural).

Examples

4. Her

We use her when the subject is a female. We use her for plural or singular nouns.

What is her name? Mary lives in New York. Her house is small but beautiful (singular). Anna likes animals. Her pets are three white cats (plural).

Examples

We use its when the subject is only one thing or one animal. We use its for plural or singular nouns.

5. Its

What a cute puppy, what is its name? The dog always moves its tail, when it sees its owner (singular). Hey, the wireless TV control doesn´t have its batteries (plural). The table has its four legs cut (plural).

Examples

It is used when the subject is we. It is used with singular or plural nouns.

6. Our

We are rich, and our house has pools and gardens (singular).We like our school and our teachers (singular /plural). Our dogs aren´t dangerous (plural).

Examples

We use their when the subject is they. We use their for people, animals or things. We use their for plural or singular nouns.

8. Their

These dogs had their ears cleaned and their nails trimmed. (animals)(plural /plural). The boys gave me their money for their books (people) (singular/plural). In Arabia, dogs don't get their vaccines on time (plural). The boys have their apartment (singular). In Israel, many cars don't have their license plates (things) (plural).

Position of the possessive adjectives

The position of possessive adjectives Like all adjectives in English, they are always located before the noun they refer to. Possessive adjective + noun Example: My house Your book Their car

Possessive adjective agreement

The possessive adjective needs to agree with the possessor and not with the thing, animal or person that is possessed. Examples: My house is big (“I” is the subject that possesses a home). Her husband works in a bank (“She” is the subject that possesses a husband). His mother is a teacher (“He” is the subject that possesses a mother).

Possessive adjectives with plural or singular nouns

The form of possessive adjectives is the same with plural or singular nouns Our car is expensive (a singular thing). Our cars are expensive (plural things). My book is interesting (singular). My books are interesting (plural). Our son is handsome (singular). Our sons are handsome (plural).

Possessive pronouns

What are possessive pronouns?

There are different forms of expressing possession; two of the most common are possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns. First at all, we have to know the difference between and adjective and a pronoun. * An adjective is a word that describes nouns. *A pronoun is a word which takes the place of a noun. Read the following examples The blue words are the adjectives that describe the nouns which are in red:

Difference between a pronoun and an adjective

An adjective always goes before a noun, because if we use the adjective only, we will do not know who it refers to. If we say blue, tall, intelligent or good, we won't know who or what these adjectives refer to. That is why an adjective always goes before a noun.

The red words are the nouns and the blue words are the pronouns. Examples of pronouns:

Difference between a pronoun and an adjective

Notice that a pronoun substitutes the noun to avoid repetition. If we don’t want to say “Tom”, we say “he” if we don´t want to say “the girls” we say “they”. That is why when we use possessive pronouns we don´t mention the item that is possessed because a pronoun substitutes the noun.

Possessive pronouns avoid repetition

Read the following sentence, pay attention to the read words. This cell phone is my cell phone, it is not your cell phone. You can see in this sentence we say three times cell phone, the sentence is correct, but it does not sound good because we are repeating cell phone which is the noun. When we use the possessive pronouns we avoid repeating the noun, in this case cell phone. Look at the sentence again, now with possessive pronouns. This cell phone is mine, it is not yours The possessive pronouns mine and yours substitute the possessive adjectives and the nouns.

This cell phone is my cell phone, it is not your cell phone Mine yours *mine substitutes my cell phone *yours substitutes your cell phone Now read the sentence again This cell phone is mine, it is not yours

You can see in the example, possessive pronouns have the function of describing who is the owner of something or someone and replace the possessive adjective and the noun.

Position in the sentence.

At the end.

At the beginning.

Possessive pronouns can be the subject of a sentence, so its position is at the beginning.

Possessive pronouns can be the object of a sentence, so its position is at the end.

• I don´t like your costume, I like yours.
• I lend Susan my costume and she lends me hers.
• They are our costumes. They are ours.

• I don´t like your costume, mine is better.
• My costume is fantastic, yours is too.
• My costume has 3 colors, hers has two.

The possessive pronouns are always the same for singular or plural nouns, look at the following example (you will notice that the possessive pronoun is the same for singular or plural nouns):

Possessive pronouns with plural or singular nouns

Singular Jack: is it your pencil? Jacob: Yes, it is mine

Plural

Jack: are these your color pencils? Jacob: Yes, they are mine

Forms of the possessive pronouns

1. First person singular: mine

This pronoun expresses possession of the subject I.

A: Excuse me, whose book is it? B. It is mine.

A: Is that your school bag? B: Yes, it is mine.

A: is that your dog? B: Yes, it is mine.

Forms of the possessive pronouns

2. First person plural: ours

This pronoun expresses possession of the subject We

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