Possessive Pronouns
A possessive pronoun is a word that shows ownership and stands in place of a whole noun phrase, such as 'mine', 'yours', 'his', 'hers', 'ours' or 'theirs', for example 'That coat is mine.' Year 4 pupils learn to tell possessive pronouns apart from possessive adjectives like 'my' or 'her', which must always be followed by a noun.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Decide who or what owns the thing you are talking about.
- Choose the possessive pronoun that matches the owner: 'mine' for me, 'yours' for you, 'his'/'hers' for one person, 'ours' for us, 'theirs' for more than one owner.
- Use the possessive pronoun on its own, without a noun after it, because it already stands for 'owner plus noun'.
- Do not confuse it with a possessive adjective like 'my', 'your' or 'her', which must be followed by a noun ('my book' not 'mine book').
- Never add an apostrophe to a possessive pronoun: 'its', 'yours', 'theirs' and 'hers' never have an apostrophe.
- Check your sentence still makes sense if you mentally replace the possessive pronoun with 'the noun that belongs to (owner)'.
Worked example
Rewrite this sentence using possessive pronouns instead of the repeated noun phrases: 'This pencil case is not my pencil case, it is Freya's pencil case.'
- Identify the noun phrase being repeated: 'pencil case'.
- Replace 'my pencil case' with the possessive pronoun 'mine'.
- Replace 'Freya's pencil case' with the possessive pronoun 'hers'.
- Check neither possessive pronoun has an apostrophe.
- Final answer: 'This pencil case is not mine, it is hers.'
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a English exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Circle the possessive pronoun in this sentence and explain how you know it is a possessive pronoun rather than a possessive adjective: 'I thought the trophy was ours.'
Find and correct the error in this sentence, explaining the rule: 'The last biscuit is your's if you want it.'
Complete each sentence with the correct word from the choices given, then state whether it is a possessive pronoun or a possessive adjective: 'This umbrella is (I) ___. Those boots belong to Sam, so they are (Sam) ___. The dog wagged (it) ___ tail. Is that seat (you) ___?'
Free printable worksheet
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