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
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
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.
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