We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people or thing/things (the "antecedent") belonging to a person/people (and sometimes belonging to an animal/animals or thing/things).
We use possessive pronouns depending on:
- number: singular (eg:mine) or plural (eg:ours)
- person: 1st person (eg:mine), 2nd person (eg:yours) or 3rd person (eg:his)
- gender: male (his), female (hers)
Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some example sentences. Notice that each possessive pronoun can:
- be subjectorobject
- refer to a singularorplural antecedent
numberpersongender (of "owner")possessive pronounssingular1stmale/femalemine2ndmale/femaleyours3rdmalehisfemalehersplural1stmale/femaleours2ndmale/femaleyours3rdmale/female/neutertheirs
- Look at these pictures.Mineis the big one. (subject = My picture)
- I like your flowers. Do you likemine? (object = my flowers)
- I looked everywhere for your key. I found John 's key but I couldn 't findyours. (object = your key)
- My flowers are dying.Yoursare lovely. (subject = Your flowers)
- All the essays were good buthiswas the best. (subject = his essay)
- John found his passport but Mary couldn 't findhers. (object = her passport)
- John found his clothes but Mary couldn 't findhers. (object = her clothes)
- Here is your car.Oursis over there, where we left it. (subject = Our car)
- Your photos are good.Oursare terrible. (subject = Our photos)
- Each couple 's books are colour-coded.Yoursare red. (subject = Your books)
- I don 't like this family 's garden but I likeyours. (subject = your garden)
- These aren 't John and Mary 's children.Theirshave black hair. (subject = Their children)
- John and Mary don 't like your car. Do you liketheirs? (object = their car)