Possessive adjectives

1. What Are Possessive Adjectives?

Possessive adjectives show who or what something belongs to.

They always come before a noun.

Possessive Adjective or Possessive Pronoun?

A possessive adjective comes before a noun: This is my book. A possessive pronoun is used alone: This book is mine. Compare: That is her phone. / That phone is hers. See the personal-pronouns lesson for the subject forms I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.

The form of the possessive adjective never changes. It stays the same whether the noun is singular or plural.

2. What Each Possessive Adjective Means

The possessive adjectives in English are:

• my – something belongs to me.
• your – something belongs to you (one person or more than one person).
• his – something belongs to a man or boy.
• her – something belongs to a woman or girl.
• its – something belongs to a thing or animal.
• our – something belongs to us.
• their – something belongs to them, or to one person when their gender is not known or not important.

Choose his or her by the person it refers to, not by the noun.

3. His or Her?

The possessive adjectives his and her depend on the person they refer to, not the noun.

4. Names and Possessive ’s

Use ’s with a named owner: Tom’s bag, Maria’s phone. Then use a possessive adjective when you continue talking about the owner: Tom has a bag. His bag is blue.

5. No Article Before a Possessive Adjective

Possessive adjectives replace a/an or the. Say my book, not a my book or the my book.

6. Body Parts and Personal Items

We often use a possessive adjective with body parts and personal items: I hurt my hand. / She brushed her teeth. / He forgot his wallet.

7. Common Mistakes

Common mistake	Correct form	Why?
❌ Maria is with his brother.	✅ Maria is with her brother.	The brother is Maria’s, so use her.
❌ Ben is with her sister.	✅ Ben is with his sister.	The sister is Ben’s, so use his.
❌ The dog is eating it’s food.	✅ The dog is eating its food.	Its shows possession; it’s means it is/it has.
❌ These are theirs shoes.	✅ These are their shoes.	Use the possessive adjective their before a noun.
❌ They are mys books.	✅ They are my books.	Possessive adjectives do not change form.
❌ Your very kind.	✅ You’re very kind.	You’re means you are.
❌ There shoes are new.	✅ Their shoes are new.	Their shows possession.
❌ I hurt the hand.	✅ I hurt my hand.	Use a possessive adjective for a person’s body part.
❌ This is a my book.	✅ This is my book.	Do not use an article before a possessive adjective.

8. Recap

Use this table to match each subject pronoun to its possessive adjective and possessive pronoun:

Subject pronoun	Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun
I	my	mine
you (one or more people)	your	yours
he	his	his
she	her	hers
it	its	—
we	our	ours
they / singular they	their	theirs