Possessives

This possessives page brings together information about

• possessive nouns
• possessive adjectives
• possessive pronouns
• questions
• reciprocal pronouns  

possessives: nouns

We use a noun with ’s with a singular noun to show possession:

We are having a party at John’s house.
Michael drove his friend’s car.

We use s’ with a plural noun ending in -s:

This is my parents’ house.
Those are ladies’ shoes.

But we use ’s with other plural nouns:

These are men’s shoes.
Children’s clothes are very expensive.

We can use a possessive instead of a noun phrase to avoid repeating words:

Is that John’s car?		No, it’s Mary’s [car].	>	No, it’s Mary’s.
Whose coat is this?		It’s my wife’s [coat].	>	It’s my wife’s.

possessives: adjectives

Can you match these possessive adjectives to the right personal pronouns?

its, your, my, their, our, her, his

Subject	Object	Possessive
I	me
You	you
He	him
She	her
It	it
We	us
They	them

We use possessive adjectives:

• to show something belongs to somebody:

That’s our house.
My car is very old.

• for relations and friends:

My mother is a doctor.
How old is your sister?

• for parts of the body:

He’s broken his arm.
She’s washing her hair.
I need to clean my teeth.