Here is a list of the possessive pronouns that you need to know if you want to speak English.
- mine
- yours
- ours
- his
- hers
- its
- theirs
In a prior lesson, we studied possessives and possessive adjectives. Here are a few examples to help you remember.
- Jon’s house is blue.
(=His house is blue.) - Mary and Ben’s dog is cute.
(=Their dog is cute.) - We did our homework.
- I visited Sue’s house.
(=I visited her house.) - That is Ben’s book.
(=That is his book.)
We can use possessive pronouns instead of the possessive/possessive adjective and noun. We use them when both the speaker and listener know the person and the noun. Possessives & Possessive Adjectives Possessive PronounsThat is my book. That is mine. Are these your keys? Are these yours? This is a picture of our dog. This is a picture of ours. We couldn’t find his phone. We couldn’t find his. Sally’s dress is blue. Tina’s dress is red. Sally’s dress is blue. Hers is red.That dog is Jon and Ben’s dog. That dog is theirs. Note: We rarely use the possessive pronoun “its”.
We usually use possessive pronouns to avoid repeating the same thing.
A) Are these your keys?
B) Yes, they are mine. (mine = my keys)
A) Whose book is this?
B) That book is hers. (hers = her book)
A) Is this your book?
B) It is not mine. (mine = my book)
A) Here is a picture of our dog.
B) Cute! Here is a picture of ours. (ours = our dog)
A) Her house is expensive. Ours is not. (Ours = Our house)
B) Don’t feel bad. Mine is not expensive either. (Mine = My house)
We can use possessive pronouns anywhere in a sentence.
- My house is big. Hers is bigger.
- I went to her house. Next time, she will come to mine.
- She doesn’t have a car, but they don’t want to give her theirs because it is new.
Possessive pronouns are most common when speaking English. They are used a lot to make sentences shorter and simpler. If you want to speak English fluently or if you want to speak natural English, then you need to learn possessive pronouns.
