Possessives: pronouns

Hello Alveiro7,

I think this question is rather too abstract for us to deal with in the comments sections. It would require a lot of definitions and explanation.

Perhaps you have a particular example you are uncertain about. We'll be happy to comment on it if so.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Mohsen.k77,

There is a difference between individually and one by one.

When you do something individually, you do it by yourself rather than working in a group.

When people do something one by one, each person waits until the previous person has finished before they start. You could imagine the students standing in a line, waiting for their turn.

One by one can also refer to a set of tasks. For example, if students have a reading text and several tasks to do with it, a teacher might instruct them to do the tasks one by one, which means doing them in sequence. In other words, the studetnts should not start the second task until they have finished the first, and not start the third until they have finished the second.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Backlight

The plural form is not correct here because you've used the indefinite article 'a', which is only used with singular nouns. But in general the 'of hers' form can be used with both singular and plural nouns. For example, if you were speaking to several people, you could say 'Are you classmates of hers?' to them and that would be correct.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

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

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 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.

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'.

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

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

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