Possessive pronouns - Live-English.net

Possessive pronouns are pronouns that demonstrate ownership or indicate possession. For example, mine, yours or his.

A Video Summary About Possessive pronouns in English
A few explanations about Possessive pronouns
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

 

A Video Summary About Possessive pronouns in English

 

A few explanations about Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns can help us to avoid repetition. For example:
Instead of saying “the red pencil is my pencil, and the blue pencil is your pencil”, we can say “the red pencil is mine and the blue pencil is yours”.

SUBJECT PRONOUN POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE POSSESSIVE PRONOUN
I MY MINE
YOU YOUR YOURS
HE HIS HIS
SHE HER HERS
IT ITS (NOT USED)
WE OUR OURS
YOU (PLURAL) YOUR YOURS
THEY THEIR THEIRS

SOME COMMON MISTAKES WITH POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS:
I found a bag. Is it your?
This sentence is incorrect because ‘your’ is the possessive adjective. We could say “I found a bag. Is it your bag?”

I found a bag. Is it yours?
This sentence uses the correct possessive pronoun and helps us avoid repetition of the word ‘bag’.

I love Manhattan because it’s skyline is so beautiful.
‘It’s’ uses an apostrophe and is an abbreviation of ‘it is’.

I love Manhattan because its skyline is so beautiful.
‘Its’ is the correct possessive of ‘it’

Exercises about Possessive pronouns

Exercise 1 Complete the sentences with the correct possessive pronoun. The subject is given in brackets

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Exercise 2 From the table, find which words are subjects and which are possessive pronouns and write them in the correct box below. You won’t use all the words as some are possessive adjectives

SUBJECT POSSESSIVE PRONOUN
YOU          SHE

I

                                     WE

HE

THEY

YOU

 

               IT

YOURS

                                   YOURS

          THEIRS

                                                  OURS

     MINE

                 HERS

                                                 HIS


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Exercise 3 Change these sentences, using a possessive pronoun, to remove the repetition of words

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