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:
|
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
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 friendof me.)I am one of Susan's friends. > I am a friend of Susan's.
(NOT I am a friendof Susan.)
- Possessives: pronouns 2
Comments
Hi, can I use an possessive adjective followed by an apostrophe. For example: Her friends’ coats or her friends coats?
Hello Phan Hang,
Yes, you can certainly use an apostrophe like that.
Her friends' coats is perfectly fine.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
It's really great.
Why isn’t there a possessive pronoun “its” ?
Hello again re_nez
It's not included in the table on this page because it's something native speakers don't use. To be honest, I don't know exactly why this is, but I expect that it has to do with the way the language evolved over the past 1500 years.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello. My question is: what’s the rule for possessive pronouns when you want to use nouns or names. Do you place an apostrophe at the end of a name or not? For example: is it: that house was hers and Johns? or: that house was hers and John’s?
Thank you very much.
Hello Antosole7,
The correct form here is John's.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello .... I have a problem to understand how and when to use possesive nouns and adjectives.....for example... Your house is big but mine/my is small??? Their car is expensive but ours/our is cheap??
Hello Andrea, you could say: "Your house is big but mine is small". In this case, "mine" means "my house".
The same goes for "Their car is expensive but ours (=our car) is cheap".
Hope that helped.
Hello Andrea, you could say: " Your house is bigger than mine."
Is this car cheaper than ours?
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