Possessive Determiners

Possessive determiners are function words used before a noun to show ownership or possession. In this lesson, we will learn all about them.

What Are Possessive Determiners?

Possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives in traditional grammar) are words that come before nouns and show possession and ownership.

Possessive Determiners in English

The possessive determiners are:

	Singular	Plural
Neutral	my	our
Neutral	your	your
Masculine	his	-
Feminine	her	-
Neutral	its	-
Neutral	-	their

Placement

Possessive determiners come at the beginning of a noun or a noun phrase, so if the noun phrase has one or more adjectives(s), they come after the determiner. Look at these examples:

He's my brother, Ryan.

Welcome to our house!

You're wearing my blue denim jacket.

I have a car.	This is my car.
You have a car.	This is your car.
He has a car.	This is his car.
She has a car.	This is her car.
We have a car.	This is our car.
They have a car.	This is their car.

Determiner or Pronoun?

The table above shows possessive determiners. Do not confuse them with possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns appear alone and are not accompanied by a noun.

Possessive Determiners	Possessive Pronouns
My	Mine
Your	Yours
His	His
Her	Hers
Its	-
Our	Ours
Their	Theirs

using the possessive determiner 'my' in a sentence

Homophones

Pay attention to these three possessive determiners and contracted forms. They are homophones, which means they sound the same but have different meanings and spelling.

possessive determiner	contraction
your	you're
its	it's
their	they're

It's their kid who's making all the noise!

They're making all the noise! → They are making all the noise!

It's complicated!

'It's' is the contracted form of 'it is'.

My cat has broken its leg.

Here, 'its' is a possessive determiner.

Whose

Whose is a pronoun, but it can also be used as a determiner, especially when we are asking a question about ownership of something. For example:

Whose car is this?

Whose jacket needs to be washed?

Review

All you have learned so far is to use possessive determiners to tell someone owns something. To ask for the owner of something use the term whose.
Possessive determiners are followed by a 'noun'. But the interrogative word 'whose' is not necessarily followed by a 'noun'. To make the interrogative sentences wh-word 'whose' is followed by a yes/no question.

Look at the possessive determiners for each person and how to question them.

persons	possessive determiners	examples	interrogative sentences
first person singular	my	My stuff were in Bonny's house.	Whose stuff were in Bonny's house
second person singular	your	Is this your dog?	Whose dog is this?
third person singular (female)	her	Her car was parked at the corner of the street.	Whose car was parked at the corner of the street?
third person singular (male)	his	His dog's name was Betty.	Whose name was Betty?
third person singular (neuter)	its	They injected in to its hand.	Whose hand did they inject?
first person plural	our	They wanted to break in to our house.	Whose house did they want to break in to?
second person plural	your	Your mothers are waiting for you to come.	Whose mothers are waiting?
third person (neuter)	their	Their policy was to stay fair-minded.	Whose policy was to stay fair-minded?

Comments

(0)

What Are Possessive Determiners?
Possessive Determiners in English
Placement
Whose
Review

Share on :

English VocabularyStart learning categorized English vocabulary on Langeek.

Click to start