Possessives: pronouns

Learn about possessive pronouns like mine, yours, his, hers, etc. and do some exercises to practise using them.

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. (NOT No, it's [~~my car~~].)

Whose coat is this?
Is it yours? (NOT Is it [~~your coat~~]?)

Her coat is grey.
Mine is brown. (NOT ~~[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

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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

Your smile "makes" or "make" which is correct and why?

Hello Dev.D,

The correct answer is 'makes' because 'smile' is a singular count noun. If it were plural then we would use a plural verb:

You smile makes me happy.

Their smiles make me happy.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team