Level: beginner
| Subject | Object | Possessive adjective |
|---|---|---|
| I | me | my |
| you | you | your |
| he | him | his |
| she | her | her |
| it | it | its |
| we | us | our |
| they | them | their |
We use possessive adjectives:
- to show something belongs to somebody:
That's our house.
My car is very old.
- for relations and friends:
My mother is a doctor.
How old is your sister?
- for parts of the body:
He's broken his arm.
She's washing her hair.
I need to clean my teeth.
- Possessives: adjectives
| Be careful! |
|---|
|
The possessive adjective its does not have an apostrophe ('):
(it's always means it is or it has.) |
- its or it's?
Comments
I am very anxious with this task and question. So, I do, but I still have mistake. I try again and the result is good. Thank you
Sorry, I didn't understand that it was a task, not rule.
I'm sorry, may be I'm too silly, but look at your table
He-his
It-it?
Hi BC,
The Q3 says: The dog wagged _____ tall when it saw the postman.
I answered: his, but the cirrect answer is: its. Could please explain me why?
Thanks
Hello again reyeslina,
In theory, 'his', 'her' or 'its' could also be used to refer to a dog. People tend to use 'its' when they don't know the dog or don't care about it; when they do know the dog, they usually use the appropriate form ('his' or 'her') according to its gender.
In this case, the second part of the sentence ('... when it saw the postman') indicates that the speaker doesn't know this dog, so 'it's' is the only correct answer.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir, as we know that adjective is tell you more about the noun. So in the above example [My car is very old.] can we consider Old as an adjective? (or Very Old as an adjective).
My is a Possessive Adjective.
Hello again The_Unknown,
Yes, 'old' is an adjective, but 'very' is an adverb. By the way, any good dictionary, such as the Cambridge Dictionary, will show you what part of speech (adverb, verb, preposition, etc.) words can be. You could also put sentences into a sentence parser to see what part of speech they are.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi. In the sentence 'My room is the biggest.' Is the word 'My' a possessive pronoun or possessive adjective? Thanks
Hello shelma,
Adjectives tell us more about a noun, while pronouns replace a noun. In this sentence, 'my' is telling us something about the noun 'room', which makes it an adjective. Also, the possessive pronoun for the first person singular ('I') is 'mine'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Louis,
When I said that (1) 'my' was telling us something about the 'noun' room and that (2) adjectives tell us something about nouns, that was a way of saying that 'my' is an adjective. If you look at our possessives: pronouns page, you'll see that 'my' is listed as an adjective; the corresponding pronoun is 'mine'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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