Possessive Pronoun

Definition

Possessive pronoun can be defined as “A possessive pronoun is a pronoun that can take the place of a noun phrase to show ownership”.

Explanation

Possessive pronoun is a pronoun which shows ownership to someone or something in the sentence.

Possessive pronouns can substitute a noun phrase in order to prevent the repetition of a noun in the sentence.

Examples of possessive pronouns are like my, your, mine, his, yours, her, its, hers, our, their, theirs, ours, whose, etc.

For Example

• These bags are mine, not yours. (in this sentence, the words “mine” and “yours” are possessive pronouns showing possession for bags).
• This is ours house. (in this sentence, the word “ours” is possessive pronoun showing possession for house).
• This bedroom is mine. (in this sentence, the word “mine” is possessive pronoun showing possession for bedroom).
• He is her brother’s bike. (in this sentence, the word “her” is possessive pronoun showing possession for brother’s bike).
• This is yours pen. (in this sentence, the word “yours” is possessive pronoun showing possession for pen).
• That is my duck. Or The duck is mine. (in this sentence, the words “my” and “mine” are possessive pronoun showing possession for a duck).
• That is her doll. Or The doll is hers. (in this sentence, the words “her” and “hers” are possessive pronoun showing possession for a doll).
• That is their garden. Or The garden is theirs. (in this sentence, the words “their” and “theirs” are possessive pronoun showing possession for a garden).

Rules to be Followed

Generally, we make a mistake of using apostrophe in the possessive pronoun words. But, it needs to remember that, possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. We should be very clear that whether we should use apostrophe or not.

We should avoid making such mistakes while using possessive nouns in the sentence. The words like her’s, their’s, our’s, it’s, etc are not possessive nouns. We use possessive nouns without the apostrophes.

There are various weak possessive pronouns (also called as possessive determiners) used as determiners before the nouns (such as “My pen is broken”).

Examples of weak possessive pronouns are my, his, your, its, our, her, and their. There are some strong or absolute possessive pronouns also which are stand on their own such as mine, his, yours, its, ours, hers, and theirs.

Exercises for You

We have provided below some exercises in order to help you to improve your knowledge about possessive pronoun.

You need to get detail information about possessive pronoun provided above and check your skill by doing following exercises.

Choose correct possessive pronouns from the following sentences given below and match with the given answer:

1. That pen is hers.
2. Your doll is old but mine is new.
3. The lunch box on the table is mine.
4. The smallest dog is yours.
5. The eye glasses are hers.
6. The house is ours not theirs.
7. I have not bought any pen yet. May I use yours?
8. They have received your documents. Did you received theirs.
9. Is this bag yours?
10. Mine is the pen with the blue tip.
11. This gifts are hers.
12. This dog is hers but cat is mine.
13. Is this bike hers?
14. Is she received yours letter?
15. This school is theirs.

Answers: 1 – hers, 2 – mine, 3 – mine, 4 – yours, 5 – hers, 6 – ours, theirs, 7 – yours, 8 – theirs, 9 – yours, 10 – Mine, 11 – hers, 12 – hers, mine, 13 – hers, 14 – yours, 15 – theirs.

Related Information:

Pronoun
Personal Pronoun
Compound Personal Pronoun
Demonstrative Pronoun
Indefinite Pronoun
Distributive Pronoun
Reciprocal Pronoun
Relative Pronoun
Interrogative Pronoun