LoginPossessive Determiners
In this lesson, master possessive determiners, which show ownership and provide detailed information about nouns. Clear explanations and practice exercises to help you learn.
What Are Possessive Determiners?
Possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives in traditional grammar) are words that come before nouns and show possession and ownership.
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. |
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? |
Quiz:
Which sentence correctly uses a possessive determiner?
I found yours notebook under the desk.
I found your notebook under the desk.
I found you're notebook under the desk.
I found yours under the desk.
Which question correctly asks a question about possession?
Who jacket is on the floor?
Who's jacket is on the floor?
Whose jacket is on the floor?
Whom jacket is on the floor?
Match each sentence with the correct grammatical description.
Fill the table using the correct possessive determiner to rewrite each sentence. (There are two extra options.)
I have a brother. | This is brother. |
He plays the guitar. | guitar sounds amazing. |
Do you have a passport? | Is this passport? |
They have a nice house. | house seems nice. |
She completed a research project. | research is complete. |
Fill each blank with the correct possessive determiner.
Before the performance, the dancers adjusted
colorful costumes.
lunchbox is leaking in the refrigerator?
The ancient tree shed
leaves earlier than usual this autumn.
Excuse me, is this
textbook? I found it under the library desk.
My teammates and I celebrated
victory with a parade through the city.
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