Sign inPossessive Determiners
Possessive determiners are types of 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
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
Welcome to
You're wearing
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This is |
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This is |
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This is |
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This is |
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This is |
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This is |
Determiner or Pronoun?
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 |
|---|---|
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you're |
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it's |
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they're |
It's
'It's' is the contracted form of 'it is'.
My cat has broken
Here, 'its' is a possessive determiner.
Whose
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 |
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Whose stuff were in Bonny's house |
| second person singular | your |
Is this |
Whose dog is this? |
| third person singular (female) | her |
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Whose car was parked at the corner of the street? |
| third person singular (male) | his |
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Whose name was Betty? |
| third person singular (neuter) | its |
They injected in to |
Whose hand did they inject? |
| first person plural | our |
They wanted to break in to |
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 |
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Whose policy was to stay fair-minded? |
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Pre-determiners
Pre-determiners are used to modify a noun. They are placed before the central determiners. Follow the article to learn about them.
Post-determiners
Post-determiners are terms that are used after central determiners. They are all used to modify the noun phrase. follow the article to learn more.
Determiner Order
As you know, pre-determiners, determiners, and post-determiners can be used together to modify a noun. In this lesson, we will learn about their order.
Interrogative Determiners
There are three interrogative determiners in English: what, which, and whose. In this lesson, we will go through each one of them.
