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Possessive pronouns

Presentation / Objective

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Content

Possessive pronouns

What are possessive pronouns?

  • Definition

    Possessive pronouns are words, which give ownership to someone or something. They substitute the noun and avoid repetition. They make sentences less confusing.

    The possessive pronouns in English are as follows:

    mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs.

    You should not confuse possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns. Look at the following chart.

    Personal pronoun

    Possessive adjective

    Possessive pronoun

    I

    My

    Mine

    you (singular and plural)

    Your

    Yours

    He

    His

    His

    She

    Her

    Hers

    It

    Its

    its

    We

    Our

    ours

    They

    Their

    theirs

  • Difference between a pronoun and an adjective

    There are different forms of expressing possession; two of the most common are possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.
    First at all, we have to know the difference between and adjective and a pronoun. 

    • An adjective is a word that describes nouns.
    • A pronoun is a word which takes the place of a noun.

    Read the following examples
    The blue words are the adjectives that describe the nouns which are in red:

    • A blue         car
      adjective    noun
    • Tall girls
      adjective   noun
    • An intelligent   person
      adjective         noun
    • Good students
      adjective   noun

    An adjective always goes before a noun, because if we use the adjective only, we will do not know who it refers to.

    If we say blue, tall, intelligent or good, we won't know who or what these adjectives refer to. That is why an adjective always goes before a noun.

    The red words are the nouns and the blue words are the pronouns.
    Examples of pronouns:

    • Tom is a good boy
      noun
    • He is a good boy
      pronoun
    • The girls are in France
      noun
    • They are in France
      pronoun
    • Susan is intelligent
      noun
    • She is intelligent
      pronoun
    • The dog is happy 
      noun
    • It is happy
      pronoun

    Notice that a pronoun substitutes the noun to avoid repetition. If we don’t want to say “Tom”, we say “he” if we don´t want to say “the girls” we say “they”. That is why when we use possessive pronouns we don´t mention the item that is possessed because a pronoun substitutes the noun.

  • Possessive pronouns avoid repetition

    Read the following sentence, pay attention to the read words.

    This cell phone is my cell phone, it is not your cell phone.

    You can see in this sentence we say three times cell phone, the sentence is correct, but it does not sound good because we are repeating cell phone which is the noun.

    When we use the possessive pronouns we avoid repeating the noun, in this case cell phone.

    Look at the sentence again, now with possessive pronouns.

    This cell phone is mine, it is not yours

    The possessive pronouns mine and yours substitute the possessive adjectives and the nouns.

    This cell phone is my cell phone, it is not your cell phone
                                  Mine                          yours 

    • mine substitutes my cell phone
    • yours substitutes your cell phone

    Now read the sentence again

    This cell phone is mine, it is not yours

    You can see in the example, possessive pronouns have the function of describing who is the owner of something or someone and replace the possessive adjective and the noun.

    Teléfono

    OpenClipart-Vectors. (2013). Teléfono. Retrieved 15/04/17 from https://pixabay.com/es/tel%C3%A9fono-la-comunicaci%C3%B3n-158086/

  • Position in the sentence.
    1. At the beginning.
      Possessive pronouns can be the subject of a sentence, so its position is at the beginning.
    Chica

    AdinaVoicu. (2015). Chica. Retrieved 15/04/17 from https://pixabay.com/es/chica-halloween-maquillaje-fantasma-1145365/

    • I don´t like your costume, mine is better.
    • My costume is fantastic, yours is too.
    • My costume has 3 colors, hers has two.

    1. At the end. Possessive pronouns can be the object of a sentence, so its position is at the end.

    • I don´t like your costume, I like yours.
    • I lend Susan my costume and she lends me hers.
    • They are our costumes. They are ours.
  • Possessive pronouns with plural or singular nouns

    The possessive pronouns are always the same for singular or plural nouns, look at the following example (you will notice that the possessive pronoun is the same for singular or plural nouns):

    Singular

    Plural

    Jack: is it your pencil?
    Jacob: Yes, it is mine

    La Escuela

    OpenClipart-Vectors. (2013). La Escuela. Retrieved 15/04/17 from https://pixabay.com/es/la-escuela-l%C3%A1piz-pluma-escribir-153561/

    Jack: are these your color pencils?
    Jacob: Yes, they are mine

    Verde

    Padrinan. (2016). Verde. Retrieved 15/04/17 from https://pixabay.com/es/verde-arte-madera-afilado-l%C3%A1piz-1738220/

Forms of the possessive pronouns

There are 7 possessive pronouns. Read carefully:

Conclusion

In the following chart there is a summary of the possessive pronouns with the first, second and third person in plural and singular. Click on each box to display all the elements.

 

PERSONAL PRONOUNS
They are used instead the nouns

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
They need to mention the thing that is possessed.

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
They don´t need to mention the thing that is possessed.

First person  singular

I

My

Mine

First person  plural

We

Our

Ours

Second person  singular

You

Your

Yours

Second person  plural

You

Your

Yours

Third person singular

He

His

His

Third person   singular

She

Her

Hers

Third person   singular

It

Its

Its

Third person plural

They

Their

Theirs

Training activity

Exercise 1

Read the sentences and write on the blanks the correct possessive pronoun..

Keep in mind that when you answer this exercise you use contractions.

Example:

They are their books.       Normal form

They are theirs.      INCORRECT ( not using contractions)

They´re theirs.       INCORRECT ( not apostrophe )

They’re theirs.         CORRECT (using a contraction)

Reading

Activity 1

Back home

Think about the answers to these questions:

  • Why do people study in other countries?
  • Do you have friends from other countries?
  • Is it common in Mexico to invite friends to stay at your home?
  • Do you like going to other countries?

In this activity, you will read a text about a girl who goes back to her country and writes a message to her friends.

Read the text carefully “Far from family”.

Listening

Activity 2

A worried boy

Listen to the podcast “A worried boy”.

Then decide if the following statements are true or false by choosing the appropriate option. You can know your score at the end of the exercise.



Writing

Activity 3

Proud friendly friends

Harry and Thomas are friends, they are very boastful and they exaggerate about their family.

Read the beginning of the following situation. What happened after the two boys met? How did they talk about their relatives?

Write your composition using 120-150 words using as many possessive pronouns as you can.

My family...

Thomas: Last year we spent our vacations in Cancun.

Harry: ours were in Canada.

Thomas: My brother has a new bicycle

Harry: Mine has a motorcycle

Thomas: My sister…

When writing your composition make sure it has the characteristics contained in the rubric.

Speaking

Activity 4

Your belongings

Think about your family members and things you have at home and talk about them from 1.5 to 2 minutes.

Use possessive pronouns. For example: let’s talk about my father, the new blue car of his; the old smartphone of hers; I want to talk about my mother ….The SUV car is hers, …


Before recording yourself, take a look at the following rubrics, so you know the aspects considered.
Once you are ready, you can record yourself.

You have come to the end of the “possessive pronouns” section.
We hope you have learned how to use them.
Remember that you must avoid confusing them with the possessive adjectives or the object pronouns.

We invite to try to use them from now on with your friends and relatives.

Self-assessment

Adjective or pronoun?

Fill in the blanks with the correct possessive adjective or possessive pronoun.

Example: Alice says the sweater is hers.

Self-assessment

Finding the possessive pronoun

Look at the nouns in parentheses and according to the context write the correct possessive pronoun.

Example:  (Billy) Is that your car? No, it is his

Self-assessment

Which is the correct one?

Pay attention to the context of the sentence and write the letter of the best answer to complete each sentence. The answers can be possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns.

Example:  ___b_______ father used to take me to the school when I was a child.

    1. Mine
    2. My
    3. his
    4. yours

References

Basic references

• Fuscoe K., (2010). Attitude Student’s Book 1. Mexico:MacMillan.
• McCarthy M., (2005). Touchstone 1. New York USA: Cambridge University Press.
• Raskin J., (2010). Future  English for results 2. New York USA: Pearson Longman.
• Richards J., (2006). Interchange 1. New York USA: Cambridge University Press.
• Saslow J., (2011). Top Notch 1. New York USA: Pearson Longman.
• Soars L., (2003). American Headway 3. New York USA: Oxford University Press.
• Soars L., (2009). American Headway 1. New York USA: Oxford University Press.

Complementary

• Shawn English Online. (2014). English Grammar: Possessive Pronouns [video]. Retrieved 23/04/17 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzInQMQ7hWE
• TeacherPhilEnglish. (2013). Possessive pronouns [video]. Retrieved 23/04/17 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqGO6ZDQC0