Chapter 1-3-4: Possessive Personal Pronouns
A possessive pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular noun (a person, place, thing, or concept). The possessive personal pronouns are "mine," "yours," "hers," "his," "its," "ours," and "theirs." Note that possessive personal pronouns are very similar to possessive adjectives like "my," "her," and "their."
In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a possessive personal pronoun:
The smallest gift is mine.
Here the possessive pronoun "mine" functions as a subject complement.
This is yours.
Here too the possessive pronoun "yours" functions as a subject complement.
His is on the kitchen counter.
In this example, the possessive pronoun "his" acts as the subject of the sentence.
Theirs will be delivered tomorrow.
In this sentence, the possessive pronoun "theirs" is the subject of the sentence.
Ours is the green one on the corner.
Here too the possessive pronoun "ours" function as the subject of the sentence.
Notes on possessive pronouns:
--Do not confuse the contraction of "it is" (it's) with the possessive pronoun “its”. For example, “That’s the dog’s food. → That’s its.”
-- Do not confuse the contraction of "they are" (they’re) with the possessive adjective their or the adverb there.
-- For the third person singular his and its, the possessive adjective and the possessive pronoun are identical: his and its.
--Remember that the pronoun refers to the actual original noun’s gender (male, female, or neutral). English uses very few gender-specific nouns. Do not use French noun genders in English. For example, when taking about a “spider’s web”, do not refer to it as “her” web. Instead, refer to it as “its” web. See Chapter 1.2.1 on page for more information on this.
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