Possessive Pronouns: Usage & Rules

Would you like to state in a text who or what something belongs to? Then use possessive pronouns! They help you to avoid unnecessary repetitions and make your text sound much more fluid.

Possessive pronouns explanation

You can also derive the function of possessive pronouns directly from their name. means in English to possess namely «possess» – literally translated, the possessive pronouns are «possessive pronouns»!

Possessive pronouns list

As in German, there is a suitable possessive pronoun for every personal pronoun in English. For example, the German personal pronoun «I» is assigned the possessive pronoun «mein/mein/meins». The English possessive pronouns follow the same principle.

Here is a list of all possessive pronouns:

Personal PronounsPosessive PronounsTranslationIminemy, my, myyouyoursyour, your, yourshehishis, his, hisshehersher, her, heritits(his) weoursour, our, ouryouyoursyours, yours, yours / yours, yours, yourstheytheirsher/her/her

Possessive pronouns should ownership to express. They are only used if the noun in question has already been mentioned. So you use a possessive pronoun, um repetitions to avoid. Consequently substitute the possessive pronouns that noun.

Here are two examples where the noun is replaced with a possessive pronoun:

Of course you could too «Yes, it’s Anne’s.» or «Iit’s my car.» to say. So that you don’t have to name the noun again, you use the possessive pronouns here.

Possessive pronouns – rules and examples

In contrast to German, the possessive pronouns in English Not to the gender customized. That’s because English words don’t have grammatical gender—for example, «meine,» «meiner,» and «meins» are always used with mine translated.

The possessive pronouns become too Not to the number (Number) adapted to the noun. It is therefore not important whether the noun that is replaced by the possessive pronoun is in the singular or plural – the same possessive pronoun is used for singular and plural!

You can see that in these examples:

In addition, you can use the possessive pronoun to replace both the subject and the object of a sentence. It can look like this, for example:

In this case is this house the subject of the sentence. As you can see, it can be replaced by a possessive pronoun – in this case with its – be replaced.

In this sentence is Adam the subject, and new house the object. As in the previous example, the object can also be its be replaced.

Possessive pronouns and possessive adjuncts – difference

Possessive pronouns and possessive companions indicate both ownership. Nevertheless, they differ in their grammatical application. Reminder: possessive pronouns replaced a nounwhich has already been mentioned before.

Possessive adjectives also indicate ownership, but they cannot replace the noun. As the name suggests, they accompany the noun. So possessive companions must always in connection with a noun stand!

You can see the differences between the individual possessive pronouns and possessive companions in this table:

possessive pronouns

possessive adjunct

Singular

mine

my

yours

your

his

his

hers

here

its

its

Plural

ours

our

yours

your

theirs

their

The following example shows you the different uses of possessive pronouns and possessive companions:

With a suitable possessive pronoun, the noun – so backpack – be replaced. Your answer would then look like this:

However, if you want to use a possessive adjunct, you can backpack cannot be substituted in your answer – the possessive adjunct must be in connection with the noun. So the answer should be:

To distinguish possessive pronouns from possessive adjuncts, you simply have to pay attention to the position of the noun. Possessive adjectives always come before a noun. Possessive pronouns replace a noun and can therefore never come immediately before a noun.

His and its

As you have seen in the table, his and its be both a possessive pronoun and a possessive adjunct. Distinguishing them, however, is quite simple.

Are located his or its direct before a noun, it is a possessive adjunct. It can look like this, for example:

Possessive pronouns, on the other hand, are never connected to a noun – they replace the noun, whose ownership you want to indicate. In one sentence it would look like this: