EnglishAdjectives, Pronouns, Determiners The possessive adjectives in English are my, your, our, their, his, her, and its. These words are used to replace the possessor and the possessive -’s in a possessive construction like Lucy’s house.
Possessive adjectives are a little bit like pronouns (they replace a noun), but we call them adjectives because we only use them to describe another noun:
= the house that belongs to me
= the house that belongs to you
= the house that belongs to them
Your question is: What are the possessive adjectives in English? My answer is simple. They are those seven little words that will tell your listener who something belongs to. Let’s get started on our explanation.
What are the English possessive adjectives?
The main possessive adjectives in English are given below. Notice that there is one possessive adjective for each English personal pronoun.
A couple small points about these possessive adjectives:
The possessive adjective you choose will match the owner of something, not the thing that is owned:
If you don't know the owner's gender, you can use singular theiror you can use the phrase his or her. Both are acceptable.
Each kid grabbed their lunch.
Each kid grabbed his or her lunch.
If the owner uses the non-binary pronouns they/them, or if you choose not to specify the gender of the owner, you can use “singular they” and say their.
Jonah usually eats their lunch at noon.
Valerie is finished with their audition.
Be careful of these confusing spellings!
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The possessive adjective ‘whose’
There is also one more possessive adjective in English: whose.
Whose is the -whquestion word we use when we are asking who the owner of something is.
It can also introduce a relative clause that describes the owner of something:
The person whose dog stole my sandwich…
→ The person that is the owner of the dog that stole my sandwich…
You might notice that whose is based on the word who.
But be careful about the spelling!
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| | = Who has been here before? |
How to use possessive adjectives in English?
Use a possessive adjective to say who owns or “possesses” an object. A possessive adjective replaces a noun + possessive -’s.
John’s book is on the table → His book is on the table.
I drove Patricia’s car. → I drove her car.
The hamster ate the hamster’s dinner. → The hamster ate its dinner.
Jane and Michael’s room is upstairs. → Their room is upstairs.
I went to Fabrizio's house. → I went to their house.
→ Singular they! Fabrizio might use non-binary they/them pronouns, or maybe the speaker just chose not to mention Fabrizio's gender.
You may recall that you can also create a possessive construction by placing the possessor after of:
But we only use the possessive adjective before the noun:
We do not add possessive -’s to personal pronouns:
❌ I’s, you’s, he’s, she’s, it’s, we’s, they’s
✅ my, your, his, her, its, our, their
In some dialects, there is a special word for plural you like y’all, you guys, yinz, or youse. To make these expressions into possessive adjectives, just add the normal -’s:
However, these possessive forms are very informal. It is always safe to say your.
You can use a possessive adjective in all the same cases where you can use noun + -’s, but there are a few little rules to learn.
When to use English possessive adjectives?
In English, you can use a possessive adjective any time you would use the possessive -’s. Like a possessive noun (noun + -’s), we use possessive adjectives to show that one noun owns or has a close relationship with another noun:
Use a possessive adjective when one noun is owned by another:
Our tiny house is green and yellow.
Use a possessive adjective to show a close relationship with another noun, for example:
Jill likes Mike. She is his friend.
Mike is Maddy’s father. He is her father.
Mr. Swift teaches Maddy and Luke. He is their teacher.
Someone uses or attends a institution, group, or meeting:
Her university is over 100 years old.
Their book club is reading 100 Years of Solitude.
My chess team has won three tournaments this year.
One thing is part of another thing:
You need to cut your hair.
Where to put a possessive adjective in a sentence?
Here are the main rules about where to put possessive adjectives in a sentence. They start basic, and get more advanced:
Possessive adjectives go before the noun they modify, just like all English adjectives. So the owner comes first (my, her , ...), and then the owned thing (tree, son, ...).
Possessive adjectives are determiners in English. This means:
The possessive adjective also will always come before all other adjectives.
possessive adjectivedescriptive adjective
Jimmy is her young, happy son.
You can’t use them with another determiner, like the or this:
❌ the my tree → ✅ my tree
❌ this her son → ✅ her son
ONLY use a possessive adjective before a noun. Do not use them alone after to be or any other linking verb. Instead use a possessive pronoun or add a noun after the possessive adjective:
A noun with a possessive pronoun is definite. This means that:
If the owner is a pronoun, but the noun is indefinite, you’ll need to use this structure, but with possessive pronouns instead:
We also use this structure in a few other cases where we want to express possession, but need to add another determiner before the noun. Check out this list of uses for of + possessive pronoun to learn more!
If there is more than one specific owner, do not use possessive adjectives:
❌ Sarah’s and my apartment
❌ my and Sarah’s apartment
Even native English speakers find this rule difficult! Here are some other options:
→ Good grammar, but it can be confusing. Who is “our”?
🆗 me and Sarah’s apartment
→ Very clear, but used only in very casual speech. This is not “proper” English.
🆗 mine and Sarah’s apartment
→ Again, very clear, and a little less casual, but still not “proper” English.
✅ the apartment that Sarah/she and I share
→ It is long, but it is both correct and clear. Use a solution like this in writing.
Summing up
Possessive adjectives in English are really easy to learn and use. You may have the same kind of possessive adjectives in your language! In this post, you’ve seen that:
There eight possessive adjectives in English: my, your, our, their, his, her, its, and whose.
Each possessive adjective is related to a personal pronoun.
We use possessive adjectives in place of noun + -’s. This means we use them when one noun owns another noun, or when two nouns are in a close relationship.
Possessive adjectives always come before the noun and before all other adjectives.
If you want to get some practice on using possessive adjectives, why don’t you take a look at the possessive adjective activities we’ve prepared? Or, review what we’ve looked at with our printable possessive adjective table!
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