They possessive pronoun

Table of Contents

Introduction

What are possessive pronouns? How are they used in English? What is the difference between possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives?

This article will answer these questions providing detailed explanations with examples.

What are Possessive Pronouns?

A dictionary definition of possessive pronouns goes like this:

A possessive pronoun is a pronoun such as ‘mine’, ‘yours’, or ‘theirs’ which is used to refer to the thing of a particular kind that belongs to someone.

Collins Dictionary

Here is our definition: We consider a possessive pronoun to be a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something.

Like any other pronoun, it substitutes a noun phrase and can prevent its repetition.

For example, in the phrase:

• These glasses are mine, not yours.

The words “mine” and “yours” are possessive pronouns and stand for “my glasses” and “your glasses,” respectively.

Let’s give another example to make it clearer:

• My house is bigger than Jane’s house.

To replace Jane’s house, we can use the possessive pronoun “h