As their names imply, both possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives show ownership.
Possessive pronouns are sometimes called independent possessive pronouns or absolute possessive pronouns. They show possession of a noun by replacing it. They look like this:
- mine
- yours
- ours
- his
- hers
- theirs
- its
When you use an independent possessive pronoun, you drop the noun that the pronoun is expressing a relationship to. Here are a couple of examples:
She had forgotten her jacket, so I gave her mine.
I had no idea whose bid had won the auction, but then my cousins told me that theirs had.
Possessive adjectives also clarify who or what owns something. Unlike possessive pronouns—which replace nouns—possessive adjectives go before nouns to modify them. They include the following:
- my
- your
- our
- his
- her
- their
- its
Take a look at these examples of possessive adjectives in action:
I crashed my bike into a telephone pole.
Your house is always decorated so nicely.
Each possessive pronoun also has a form called the independent possessive. They look like this:
- mine
- yours
- ours
- his
- hers
- theirs
- its
When you use an independent possessive pronoun, you drop the noun that the pronoun is expressing a relationship to. Here are a couple of examples:
She had forgotten her jacket, so I gave her mine.
I had no idea whose bid had won the auction, but then my cousins told me that theirs had.
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