Possessives: pronouns

Level: beginner

Subject	Object	Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun
I	me	my	mine
you	you	your	yours
he	him	his	his
she	her	her	hers
it	it	its	-
we	us	our	ours
they	them	their	theirs

Be careful!
Possessive pronouns do not have an apostrophe: Is that car yours/hers/ours/theirs? (NOT Is that car ~~your's/her's/our's/their's~~?)

Be careful!

Possessive pronouns do not have an apostrophe:

Is that car yours/hers/ours/theirs?
(NOT Is that car ~~your's/her's/our's/their's~~?)

We can use a possessive pronoun instead of a full noun phrase to avoid repeating words:

Is that John's car?
No, it's mine. (INSTEAD OF No, it's [~~my car~~].)
Whose coat is this?
Is it yours? (INSTEAD OF Is it [~~your coat~~]?)
Her coat is grey.
Mine is brown. (INSTEAD OF ~~[My coat]~~ is brown.)

Possessives: pronouns 1: GapFillTyping_MTYxNTc

Level: intermediate

We can use possessive pronouns and nouns after of. We can say:

Susan is one of my friends. > Susan is a friend of mine.
(NOT Susan is a friend ~~of me~~.)
I am one of Susan's friends. > I am a friend of Susan's.
(NOT I am a friend ~~of Susan~~.)

Possessives: pronouns 2: GapFillTyping_MTYxNTg

Average

Possessive pronouns substitute previously mentioned nouns (Karolina in your example) to avoid needless repetition. Correct syntax to use: 'Are you (both) classmates?' (pl.) - you and Karolina 'Are you her classmate?' (sing.) - possessive adjective + noun 'Are you a classmate of hers?' - prossessive pronoun

Hi there, I feel a bit of uncertain about the use of possessive pronoun of its when I am trying to copy this lesson's samples with "its". Let's say, Ryan (It's me) and Vivian are both the owner of a little puppy named Tom, if it's all right to say: 1. Ryan is one of its owners (its–possessive adjective) 2. Ryan is an owner of its. (its–possessive pronoun?) 3. I am (She is/ Ryan is/ Vivian is) one of Tom's owners. (Tom's–possessive adjective) 4. I am (She is/ Ryan is/ Vivian is) an owner of Tom's (Tom's–possessive pronoun) Are these expressions right? Especially for the 2nd one, I don't know how but it seems weird to me, how about you guys? Please help me out, thanks.

Hello doradosz First of all, as a native English speaker you would be much more likely to use the appropriate gendered pronoun or adjective rather than the neutral one. All of the sentences are grammatically correct, but the only one that does not sound odd to me is 3. Hope this helps! All the best Kirk The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Dear teachers, you have mentioned in possessive pronouns that we must say " a friend of susan" because after "of" we must use a possessive pronoun, is it correct about the following sentence too: "i'm a fan of Susan" or " a fan of her" ? are these sentences wrong?....but there is an example in longman dictionary in the entry of "fan" which is : " he's a big fan of Elvis Presley." if it is correct it means we can say " I'm a fan of her" or "I'm a friend of him"?! thx in advance Mohsen

Hello Mohsen.k77

The examples above say a friend of Susan's -- note the 's at the end of Susan. If you wanted to use a pronoun in the place of Susan, you'd have to use hers: a friend of hers.

In the case of the phrase you found in the dictionary, that is a use specific to the word fan, in other words, it is like an exception. We talk about fans of a person or team followed by 's, but not with fan. In fact, we often use a noun + noun combination with fan: an Elvis Presley fan.

I hope this helps.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Mohsen, possessive pronouns are used to replace previously referenced nouns, "a fan of her" should be 'a fan of hers' (if Susan has already been referenced or implied) because you're using a possessive pronoun 'hers'. In your next example "he's a big fan of Elvis Presley", the corresponding pronoun-antecedent agreement is, 'he's a big fan of his' - if both subject (he) and object (Presley) are already known, 'his' is the possessive pronoun and must agree in gender and number. (also worth reminding "he's" is a contraction of 'he is', subject pronoun + verb) 'I'm a big fan of his' - this is the correct construction using the possessive pronoun if you're saying it about you, and Elvis Presley was previously referenced.

NB my correction on the last example using a pronoun-antecedent agreement for, "he's a big fan of Elvis Presley" was used in context referencing 'Elvis Presley's music/work/personality', expanding on Kirk's point of using a possessive noun ('s) and the "noun + noun combination with fan: an Elvis Presley fan."

thanks

Hello sir, Why we didn't add more (S) to "his" in the next example like the Rest pronouns: Her birthday is on the 12th and "his" is on the 13th. Thanks in advance

Hi Maha Leila,

Could you write out what you mean, please? I don't completely understand what you are suggesting, which makes it difficult for me to help you. Please write the sentence as you think it should be written and I'll try to explain it for you.

Thanks in advance.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

The confusion here may occur because in English 'his' is used for both a possessive adjective preceding a noun (his birthday), and on its own - possessive pronoun. In the given example "his" is a possessive pronoun (and only has one 's'), replacing 'his birthday'.

Hello Is it entirely wrong to say: No/yes, it is my coat. and only No/yes, it is mine is correct. Or possessive is a better option. Actually I as a learner use the noun phrase but maybe as quoted above it doesn't sound natural. Please guide me. thanks in advance

Hi pencil,

Both are correct. One or the other might be more natural -- it really depends on the context and how much emphasis (if any) you want to make as the speaker.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Dear Sir Would you mind telling me which of the following sentences is correct and why? (a). My house is bigger than yours. (b). My house is bigger than that of yours. I thought both were correct, but one of friends confronted me saying that in such cases as this 'yours' should be preceded by 'that/those of'. My question is who is right - me or my friend?

Hello Prap,

Sentence A is correct. Possessive pronouns like 'yours' are preceded by 'of' when they qualify a noun (e.g. 'a friend of yours'), but that is not the case here.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team