1. What are possessives?

Possessives are words that tell us who owns a thing.

There are different types of possessives:
– ‘add s’ possessives
– possessive determiners
– possessive pronouns

2. Adding ‘s’

For normal nouns, an ‘s’ can be added to tell us something belongs to it.

If the noun is singular (only one), an apostrophe goes before the s.
If the noun is plural (more than one), it usually already has an s. The apostrophe goes after the s.

Singular noun	Possessive	Plural nouns	Possessive
the house	the house’s	the houses	the houses’
the teacher	the teacher’s	the teachers	the teachers’
a cat	a cat’s	cats	cats’
a city	a city’s	cities	cities’
Ada	Ada’s

3. Examples of ‘s’ possessives

The shop’s boss is old.	The companies’ owners are angry. (more than one company)
A man’s best friend is his dog.	Cats’ eyes shine in the dark. (more than one cat)
I took the girl’s chocolate bar.	The kids’ teacher plays the piano. (more than one kid)
We usually go to Ada’s house after school.	The jars’ contents smell terrible. (more than one jar)

4. Possessive determiners

Possessive determiners are words that tell us who owns a thing.
They are based on subject pronouns.

Subject pronoun	Possessive determiner	Example
I	my	It is my book.
you	your	It is your book.
he	his	It is his book.
she	her	It is her book.
it	its	It is its book.
we	our	It is our book.
they	their	It is their book.

5. Examples of possessive determiners

Don’t touch my computer!	They will use our tickets.
Your dinner is on the table.	There is no money in their bank account.
I like his new car.	Ted really hates her dog.

6. Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are words that tell us a thing belongs to someone.

While possessive determiners go with the noun (for example: this is my book), possessive pronouns go with the verb (for example: this book is mine).

Subject pronoun	Possessive determiner	Example	Possessive pronoun	Example
I	my	this is my book	mine	the book is mine
you	your	this is your book	yours	the book is yours
he	his	this is his book	his	the book is his
she	her	this is her book	hers	the book is hers
it	its	this is its book	its	the book is its
we	our	this is our book	ours	the book is ours
they	their	this is their book	theirs	the book is theirs

7. Possessive pronoun sentence patterns

Possessive pronouns can be the subject or the object in a sentence.

The most common patterns are:

• noun + verb + possessive pronoun
• possessive pronoun + be + adjective/noun
• possessive pronoun + verb + determiner

Noun + verb + possessive	Possessive + be + adjective/noun	Possessive + verb + determiner
This is mine.	Theirs is the black dog.	Mine is this one.
Which house is yours?	Look at these houses. Yours is very nice.	Yours is that one over there.
The dog is hers.	Hers is the best dog here.	Hers is that dog next to the table.
You need a ticket? You can take ours.	You need a ticket? Ours is available.	Ours are these tickets.

8. Test yourself

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