Possessive Determiners

her his its my our possessive determiners possessives their your

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.

beginner intermediate

"Possessive Determiners" in English Grammar

What Are Possessive Determiners?

Possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives in traditional grammar) are small words that come before nouns and show who owns or possesses something.

Possessive Determiners in English

The possessive determiners are:

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

Position in the Sentence

Possessive determiners come at the beginning of a noun or a noun phrase, so if the noun phrase has any adjective(s), they come after them. 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 are 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

Be Careful with These Homophones!

Pay attention to these three possessive determiners. They are homophone, which means they sound the same but have different meaning and spelling.

possessive determiner	contraction
your	you're
its	it's
their	they're (or there)

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

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

Its, Not It's

Note that the possessive determiner 'its' has no apostrophe ('). It's with an apostrophe is the contracted form of "it is" or "it has". For example:

It's complicated!

My cat has broken its leg.

Whose

Whose is a pronoun, but it can also become a determiner, especially when we are asking a question about who the owner of something is. 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?

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.

Demonstrative Determiners

Demonstrative determiners in English are this, these, that and those. They are used to identify the person or thing that is being referred to.

Indefinite Determiners

Indefinite determiners are determiners that express quantity or the indefinite ideas of quality. They agree in number and gender with the noun they modify.

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