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
Shouldn't it be "hers" in the options at the top? not just her.
its, your, my, their, our, herS, his
Hello tonyo,
'hers' is a possessive pronoun, whereas 'her' is a possessive adjective, so actually the list at the top of the page is correct. You'll find 'hers' on our possessives: pronouns page.
I changed the table at the top to say 'Possessive Adjective' instead of just 'Possessive' to help make it clearer. Thanks for telling us about this – you've helped us improve the site!
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, I'm quite confused about the use of the possessive adjective "their". Could you kindly tell me if it is right to say:
They didn't follow their superior's advice and brought their laptop.
Should I say "their laptops" ? Or should I say "their laptop"?
Hello ging-gong,
In this sentence 'their' refers to the subject ('they'). It can be followed with 'laptop' (if it is one laptop shared by 'them') or 'laptops' (if it is a number of laptops).
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
sir,
what is the difference between determiners (possessives) and possessive adjective.
Hello neh7272,
Possessive adjectives are one kind of determiner. For more information, see here and here.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
sir,
may be this is a stupid question but why can not we use 'his' with dog in a sentence or exercise above, after all he is a dog not a 'bitch'? I think we should use 'he' 'and she' with humans only'.
Thanks
Hello munish064,
We use 'dog' as the general word to mean the animal. It can mean a male rather than a female, which is called a bitch, as you say, but we only distinguish when it is necessary or when we are talking about our own pet; otherwise we say 'dog' and 'it'. However, in this sentence there is no indication whether the animal is a male or female, and so we would use 'it'.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Can i use it's in place of its
Hello faisal.iqbal,
These are quite different - though many people confuse them, including native speakers.
Its (no apostrophe) is a possessive form:
This is the dog, and this is the dog's tail > This is the dog and this is its tail.
It's (with an apostrophe) is a contracted form:
It is a nice day > It's a nice day
It has got two doors > It's got two doors
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
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