Possessive Pronouns

Each person has a corresponding pair: an adjective before a noun and a pronoun that stands alone. I → my → mine; you → your → yours; he → his → his; she → her → hers; we → our → ours; they → their → theirs.

His is the only form identical in both columns: his laptop (adjective) and It's his (pronoun) use the same spelling. This is not a source error or a reason to look for a separate form: the spellings simply coincide.

My, your, her, our and their belong to a phrase containing a noun: my key, their new idea. Mine, yours, hers, ours and theirs replace such a phrase. His has both roles: his key and This key is his.

A typical beginner's error is adding the noun again 'just in case': This is mine key is as though the key has been named twice. Once is enough: either name the noun with an adjective (my key) or replace the whole pair with a pronoun (mine).

None of these six forms is written with an apostrophe: her's, your's, their's and our's are not correct. This does not depend on context or politeness — an apostrophe in these possessive pronouns is always an error.

Confusion often comes from nearby words with apostrophes: it's (= it is) or Sam's (a noun possessive). The possessive pronouns in this list are a separate word class, complete without either an apostrophe or an added 's.

A possessive pronoun can perform the roles of an ordinary noun: it can be a subject (Mine arrived late.), follow be as a complement (This laptop is mine.), or be an object (I'll borrow yours.).

The word order around it is the same as around an ordinary noun in that role: it does not require special prepositions or a different sentence structure.

The construction a friend of mine puts a pronoun after of instead of a simple adjective: not a friend of my, but of mine. The same applies to that idea of yours, a colleague of hers and this photo of ours.

A friend of mine identifies someone who is my friend. It is often paraphrased as 'one of my friends', but does not itself establish the exact number of friends. That old joke of his can add a sense of 'that familiar joke he keeps telling'.

In English, ordinary objects do not have grammatical gender, so the possessive form is chosen according to the owner: his stapler for an owner referred to as he, hers for one referred to as she, regardless of what the object is.

Context must show who a pronoun refers to: it is not necessarily the last person mentioned. Theirs can refer to a group or to one person referred to as they. If two owners are possible and the meaning is unclear, repeating the name is better.

This rule does not teach how to choose between my and mine in an ambiguous expression without context — that choice based on the presence of a following noun belongs to the separate rule 'Possessive adjective vs pronoun'.

Questions such as Whose bag is this? with whose are covered in another rule in this topic. Here, we only answer with an established pronoun rather than build questions with whose.

Each possessive adjective has a corresponding pronoun form: my↔mine, your↔yours, her↔hers, our↔ours, their↔theirs.

Mine, yours, hers, ours and theirs never take an apostrophe. An apostrophe before s in these forms is an error, not an alternative spelling.

My, your and similar words precede the noun and its modifiers: my new shoes, not new my shoes. An adjective can therefore appear between my and the noun.

Mine, yours and similar forms replace the noun phrase themselves: This bag is mine; Mine is blue; I’ll take yours. His can appear with a noun or on its own.

His is the only word in this list that stays the same between roles: his car, an adjective, and it’s his, a pronoun, look identical. Its role depends on whether a noun follows.

In an ordinary short answer about a thing, do not use standalone its on the model of It’s mine. Normally retain the noun: its leaves. A separate fixed expression is of its own, as in a life of its own.

The same fact can be expressed both ways: start with a possessive adjective and noun, or move the noun into the subject and end with a possessive pronoun.

This change preserves the meaning — the owner and object — while changing the grammatical form and word positions.

In conversation, a possessive pronoun often occurs in a short reply to a question or statement about ownership. The other person has already named the noun, so there is no need to repeat it.

Short answers are among the most common natural contexts in which a pronoun form is more appropriate than an adjective form.

The complete set of forms and their basic meanings — mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs as an independent list — belongs to the neighbouring rule on possessive pronouns. Here we use them specifically in contrast with possessive adjectives.

Questions with whose, such as Whose bag is this?, have their own rule and are not a learning target here; they can appear only as background in examples. Noun possessives with ’s, such as Ihor’s bag, are another grammatical topic outside this rule.

Whose and who’s are both pronounced /huːz/. Whose expresses possession, while who’s contracts who is or who has. Who’s got a car? can also concern possession, but it asks which person has a car, not who a particular car belongs to.

A simple check is to expand the word. If who is or who has fits without changing the intended meaning, use who’s. If the question asks who something belongs to, use whose.

When asking about an object being indicated, a useful pattern begins with Whose + noun, followed by is or are before this, that, these or those: Whose bag is this? This is a question pattern with be.

Keep the noun, verb and demonstrative consistent in number: singular with is and this / that; plural with are and these / those.

If the object has already been named or is clear from the situation, you do not need to repeat its noun. Whose can stand alone immediately before the verb.

This is the same possessive question in a shorter form. Context, such as a previous sentence, gesture or visible object, makes the omitted noun clear.

Whose can be used with other verbs. If the person doing the action is already named, form the question with the appropriate auxiliary: Whose bike did you borrow? You did the borrowing, while whose bike identifies the object whose owner is being asked about.

If Whose + noun is itself the subject, do not add a separate subject or do / does / did: Whose phone rang? In Whose idea has caused this?, whose idea is the subject and has caused is Present Perfect.

Two useful ways to answer are with a possessive pronoun, such as mine, yours, his, hers, ours or theirs, or with a name + ’s. A complete phrase is also possible: It’s my brother’s phone. If the owner is unknown, say I don’t know.

The answer form depends on what the listener already knows. Mine works when the speaker’s identity is clear; Marta’s explicitly names the owner.

Whose asks about more than physical possession. It can also ask about roles, actions and responsibility: whose turn it is, whose idea something was, or whose mistake it was.

These constructions use the same pattern, Whose + noun + is / was. The noun simply names an abstract concept rather than an object: turn, idea, fault or responsibility.

This rule covers whose as a question word at the beginning of a direct question. The same word can introduce a relative clause modifying a noun, as in the neighbour whose dog barks every night. That is a different construction with different sentence-building rules, and it is not practised here.

We do not review the full system of possessive pronouns, mine, yours, his, hers, ours and theirs, or the contrast between possessive determiners such as my / your and pronouns such as mine / yours. Neighbouring rules cover those topics. Here a pronoun is a ready-to-use answer form rather than the main learning target.