Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show ownership.
How good is your vocabulary? Let's take a little peek into the dictionary...
That was short.
Knowing that will help you remember what these kinds of pronouns do.
Sometimes they are used alone, and sometimes they are used before nouns.
Pronoun | Singular | Plural |
| Used Alone | mine yours his, hers | ours yours theirs |
| Used Before Nouns | my your his, her, its | our your their |
Used Alone
Here are the pronouns that can be used alone:
When used alone, these pronouns can act as subjects, objects, and predicate adjectives.
Example # 1:
It may sound a little bit strange, but that sentence works.
Yours is acting as the subject of the sentence.
Example # 2:
The word mine comes after the linking verb is, and it is describing the subject cookie.
In this sentence, mine is a possessive pronoun acting as a predicate adjective.
We can tell that it is acting as an adjective because it answers one of the adjective questions.
Adjective question: Whose cookie?
Answer: mine
It is modifying a noun. Because of this, you can say that this pronoun is an adjective.
It's like it is both a pronoun and an adjective.
Used With Nouns
Here are the pronouns that are used before nouns:
These pronouns always act as adjectives because they always modify nouns.
Example:
My is helping to tell us a little bit more about the noun cookie.
It is modifying a noun and acting as an adjective.
Apostrophes? Don't Do It!
People often get confused and think that apostrophes belong in these pronouns. It's not true. Don't do it!
Incorrect:
Correct:
Note that the word it's is different from the word its.
It's is a contraction for the two words it is.
Its is a possessive pronoun.
Diagramming
Used Alone
When acting alone, diagram the possessive pronoun just like you would diagram any other noun or pronoun.
You must decide which job it is performing in the sentence and diagram it accordingly.
If the possessive pronoun is being used after a linking verb, remember that it is really acting as a predicate adjective.
Here is the diagram for the example sentence that we were using above.
Mine is being used alone.
It comes after the linking verb is, and it is acting as a predicate adjective modifying the subject.
Used Before Nouns
When used before a noun, diagram the pronoun just like an adjective.
Find the noun that it is modifying, and place the pronoun on a slanted line under that noun.
In this little picture, you could place the pronoun anywhere that it saysadjective.
Here is the diagram for the example sentence that we were using above.
