Possessive Pronouns in English

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Possessive Pronouns

Possessive Pronouns indicate possession of an object. They are used when we want to say that this object is mine, yours, his, and so on. Let’s consider the main forms of possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns have two forms, namely the dependent (or conjoint) form and the independent (or absolute)

Forms of possessive pronouns

dependent	independent
my	mine
his	his
her	hers
its	—
our	ours
your	yours
their	theirs

Possessive pronouns have the same distinctions of person, number, and gender as personal pronouns.

Conjoint forms of possessive pronouns

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
SINGULAR	my	your	his, her, its
PLURAL	our	your	their

Absolute forms of possessive pronouns

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
SINGULAR	mine	yours	his, hers
plural	ours	yours	theirs

Use of possessive pronouns

The conjoint form is used when the possessive pronoun comes before the noun it modifies. The conjoint form of the possessive pronoun is used as an attribute.

In his turn old Jolyon looked back at his son

The absolute form is used when the possessive pronoun does not modify any noun. The absolute form of the possessive pronoun may be used as subject, predicative or object. The group ‘preposition + absolute form’ may be used as an attribute. Possessive pronouns are often used before the names of the parts of the body, clothing, things belonging to a person, etc.

Young Jolyon rose and held out his hand to help his father up
The girl dropped her handkerchief and he picked it up

Possessive pronouns express the meaning of belonging (possession), etc.:

my book
her work

The dependent form of possessive pronouns is used before marked nouns. The independent form does not need a noun:

Are these your books?
Are these yours?
She is a friend of mine
I took some books of yours

Usually possessive pronouns are used with the names of body parts or clothes

Не washed his hands
Mary cleaned her teeth’
I took off my shoes

Characteristics of possessive pronouns

Its is a possessive pronoun used before a noun:

The dog got its food
It’s is a shortened form of it is or it has:
- It’s time to go
- It’s got wings

It should be noted that in phrases with a preposition, the definite article the is used instead of a pronoun

Subject	Predicate verb	Object	Phrases with a preposition
The ball	hit	me	on the shoulder
The son	kissed	the mother	on the cheek

Depending on the person, the appropriate possessive pronoun is used in this sense:

I read my book
Не reads his book

Examples of possessive pronouns

General form	Forms	Example
I	my/mine	This is my book Give me the tickets. They are mine
НЕ	his/his	I like his boots Mary’s car is red. What color is his?
SHE	her/hers	Her arrogant manner gets on my nerves This is my best friend and that is hers
IT	ITS/ITS	Look at my dog. Its eyes are so smart
WE	OUR/OURS	It is our little house It is John’s car. And that is ours
YOU	YOUR/YOURS	Give me your dictionary, please I love my friends. Do you love yours?
THEY	THEIR/THEIRS	Could you tell me their ad-dress or phone number? At first tell me about your plans and then about theirs