Possessive Pronouns

Intermediate

What are possessive pronouns?

• We use possessive pronouns to show ownership.

  • That pen is mine.

  • The books are theirs.

  • Ours is the biggest.

  • His is the best!

How do we use possessive pronouns?

• Possessive pronouns depend on three things:

  • Number: Are you speaking about one person (singular) or many people? (plural)

  • Person: Who are you speaking to/about? 1st person ( mine/ours), 2nd person ( yours) or 3rd person (his/hers/theirs)

  • Gender: Male (his), female (hers) or neutral (theirs).

• Possessive pronouns can be  subjects.

  • Did you see the paintings? Hers is the ugly one. (Hers = her painting)

  • Lisa’s new car is over there.  Ours is right here. (Ours =our car)

• Possessive pronouns can be objects:

  • I know you love Mary’s cookies. Do you like mine too? (mine= my cookies)

  • Her sweater is ugly. I like yours better. (yours = your sweater)

Activity

I. Fill in the blanks with the correct possessive pronoun

• She owns a big house. That house is ______.

• Did you lose your notebook? That looks like ______ over there.

• That car belongs to those teenagers down the street. That car is ________.

• Daniel spent all his money but I am saving ______ for the future.

• My pen is broken. Can I borrow ______?