Examples:
a. This is my tie - This is mine.
b. Her umbrella is beautiful. - Hers is
beautiful.
c. These are his shoes. - These are his.
d. These are their wallets. - These are
theirs.
e. It is my book. - It is mine.
f. That is our school. - That is ours.
g. This is our house. - This is ours.
h. That is my radio. - That is mine.
i. Those tickets are Kimberley's. - Those
are hers.
j. This is Henry's suitcase. - This is his.
k. They are my mother's keys. - They are
hers.
l. It's Lucy's chocolate. - It's hers.
m. My cousins' grades are better. - Theirs
are better.
n. Elizabeth's cakes are delicious. - Hers
are delicious.
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are words, which give ownership to someone or something. They
are pronouns so they substitute noun phrases and avoid repeating information that has
been made. They make sentences less confusing.
The possessive pronouns in English are the following:
mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs.
You should not confuse possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns. Look at the
following chart.
Personal pronoun Possessive adjective Possessive pronoun
I My Mine
you (singular and plural) Your Yours
He His His
She Her Hers
It Its its
We Our ours
They Their theirs
Possessive pronouns with plural or singular nouns
The possessive pronouns are always the same for singular or plural nouns, look at the
following example (you will notice that the possessive pronoun is the same for singular
or plural nouns):
SINGULAR:
Jack: is it your pencil?
Jacob: Yes, it is mine
PLURAL:
Jack: are these your color pencils?
Jacob: Yes, they are mine
What are Possessive Pronouns?
Possessive pronouns are words used to indicate that something belongs to someone or has a
direct relationship with someone else. They are often used in speech and writing to avoid
repetition. Consider this example:
I had dinner with Jane and Jane’s brother, Michael.
To avoid repeating the name Jane in the sentence, we use the possessive pronoun her to
make the sentence neater and less repetitive:
I had dinner with Jane and her brother, Michael.
Possessive Pronouns Examples
Here are some examples of dependent possessive pronouns in sentences:
Does this key open my door or your door?
I will bring my favorite beer to the party.
She could not believe her
His shoes were old and worn.
They promised to do their
Amazon sent an email to its
Here are some examples of independent possessive pronouns in sentences:
Who owns this bike? Is it yours?
That’s ours. Please don’t touch it.
The land west of the field is theirs.
This money is all mine.
I can see theirs, but I can’t see his.
Possessive Pronouns Rules:
There are two groups of possessive pronouns:
Dependent Possessive Pronouns
My, your, his, her, its, our, your (pl) and their are the dependent possessive pronouns.
Sometimes called possessive adjectives, they are used to indicate ownership or a relationship.
For example:
This is my
Is this man your husband?
Welcome to our
The dog chased its
The rule of dependent possessive pronouns is that they are used before a noun. You can think
of them this way: they are dependent on the noun that comes after them.
The possessive pronouns are mostly used to show ownership between a person and the noun
that follows. However, there are some instances when we don’t exactly own the thing in
question – people, countries, jobs etc. – but in these cases the possessive pronoun is used to
show ownership in the sense of a direct relationship:
I love my
Is Jamaica your country of birth?
Those are her
Sometimes an adjective can come between the possessive pronoun and noun, but only if it is
acting as a modifier for that noun:
I lost my favourite pencil.
Did you see her blue dress?
We sat in our designated seats.
Independent Possessive Pronouns
Mine, ours, yours, his, hers and theirs are the independent possessive pronouns. They are not
immediately followed by a noun. You can think of them this way: they are independent because
they don’t need a noun after them. For example:
The car parked outside is mine.
If the candy bar isn’t yours, it must belong to someone else.
This cake is
It is mine.
An independent possessive pronoun will normally come at the end of the sentence or clause.
While it should not be followed by a noun, it does need auxiliary information before it appears
to show the reader what the possessive pronoun is indicating ownership of – the cake, candy
bar, car etc. For example, if we simply say it is mine, we won’t know what it is. We will only
know whose it is. For us to know what it is, we need information before the possessive pronoun
appears.
Common Mistakes
It can be quite easy to mix up independent and dependent possessive pronouns. It means that
we can make incorrect sentences like this:
This is mine
We know this is incorrect as a noun (house) never follows at independent possessive pronoun.
The correct sentence would be:
This my
Generally, dependent possessive pronouns are shorter than their independent possessive
pronoun counterparts:
Dependent possessive pronouns Independent possessive pronouns
My Mine
Your (sing) Yours
His, Her His, Hers
Its Its*
Your (plural) Yours
Our Ours
Their Theirs
*Its is very rarely used as an independent possessive pronoun. An example can be found in
Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, but it is effectively never used in modern English.
However, one of the most common mistakes made in everyday English is the mixing up of the
possessive pronoun its with the contraction it’s (the shortened form of it is). The golden rule to
remember is that we never use apostrophes with possessive pronouns.
The boat had a red stripe on its Correct.
The boat had a red stripe on it’s Incorrect.
A horse swished its tail happily in the field.
A horse swished it’s tail happily in the field. Incorrect.
Providing Clarity
Possessive pronouns are designed to provide clarity on ownership by making sentences less
repetitious and more concise. This will make your speech and writing easier to understand.
Consider this example of a sentence that does not use possessive pronouns.
That is Jack’s house. Jack’s neighbour, Bob, lives next door. In the park across the
road from Jack’s and Bob’s houses, Jack’s and Bob’s wives are chatting.
Look how we can provide clarity with the use of possessive pronouns.
That is Jack’s house. His neighbour, Bob, lives next door. In the park across the road
from their houses, their wives are chatting.
