Grammar
👤Possessive pronouns
Personal, object, reflexive and possessive pronouns.
Before a noun or instead of a noun
English has possessive determiners before a noun: my book, your key.
Possessive pronouns replace the whole possessed noun phrase: The book is mine. The key is yours.
Do not put a noun immediately after mine, yours, hers, ours or theirs.
- possessive determiner + noun
- This is my bag.
- be + possessive pronoun
- This bag is mine.
The possessive forms
The form agrees with the owner, not with the thing that is owned.
English has no common independent possessive pronoun corresponding to it; use another structure when necessary, such as its own.
Answering whose?
Use whose to ask who owns something: Whose coat is this?
Answer with a possessive determiner plus noun or with a possessive pronoun.
Singular they uses their and theirs.
No apostrophe in possessive pronouns
Possessive determiners and pronouns do not take an apostrophe: its, yours, hers, ours, theirs.
It’s means it is or it has; its shows possession.
Who’s means who is or who has; whose asks about possession.
- my bag — the bag is mine
- her coat — the coat is hers
- their room — the room is theirs