We can define it as, “Possessive adjectives refer to words which modify a noun by showing a form of possession or a sense of belonging to a particular person or thing”.
Explanation
Possessive adjectives are used in sentence to show the possession/ownership or are used to express a close relationship with someone or something as well as modify the noun.
They also imply definiteness. Examples of possessive adjectives are like my, your, her, his, our, your, its, their, whose (interrogative), etc.
For example:
Following is the list of possessive adjectives:
Following are the examples showing the use of possessive adjectives in the sentence:
Both, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns are very confusing as they are closely related to each other; however, easy to differentiate them. We just need to remember that possessive pronouns are used in place of a noun whereas possessive adjectives modify and follow a noun.
For example:
Possessive adjective is used to show ownership and comes before a noun. Possessive adjectives are not formed by adding an apostrophe and ‘s’ to the end such as my, your, his, her, its, our, and their words are possessive adjectives whereas your’s, our’s, it’s, etc are not possessive adjectives.
On the other hand, possessive pronouns show ownership but do not come before the noun or noun phrase as they can stand alone and used to replace the noun such as mine, yours, his, hers, its, etc.
Possessive pronouns are used to replace the noun whereas possessive adjectives are used to describe the noun. Some forms of both, possessive adjective and possessive pronoun are same such as his, its however they are used differently.
Following are different forms of the possessive adjectives:
1st Person: my, our
They can be used for both male and female owners; however, ‘my’ is only for singular owners and ‘our’ is only for plural owners. Such as:
2nd Person: your
It can be used for both, male and female owners as well as for both, singular and plural owners. Such as:
3rd Person: her, his, its, their
Words like ‘her’, ‘his’, and ‘its’ are used with singular owner, whereas ‘their’ is used only with plural form owner. Moreover, ‘her’ is especially used with female owner and ‘his’ with male owners.
Such as:
Following are some rules and tips which should be remembered while using possessive adjectives in the sentence:
It is necessary for possessive adjectives to agree with the possessor but not with the thing that is possessed. Such as:
‘S’ is not included to the end of adjectives when noun is in plural form, such as:
When noun exist in singular form, verb should also be in singular form; whereas if noun is plural then verb should also be plural, such as:
Possessive adjective exercises given below will help you in analyzing your knowledge about possessive adjective. Just go through all the details given above about the possessive adjective and check your skill by doing following exercises for possessive adjective.
We have used possessive adjectives in the following sentences; you need to check your skill by identifying possessive adjectives in each sentence:
Answers: 1 – my, 2 – your, 3 – its, 4 – her, 5 – his, 6 – our, 7 – My, 8 – My, 9 – your, 10 – his, 11 – her, 12 – my, 13 – my, 14 – my, 15 – your, 16 – your, 17 – your, 18 – my, 19 – my, 20 – my.
Related Topics:
Interrogative Adjective
Non-coordinate Adjective
Coordinate Adjective
Demonstrative Adjective
Adjective of Number