The possessive adjectives in English are my, your, our, their, his, her, and its. These words are used to replace the possessor and the possessive -’s in a possessive construction like Lucy’s house.
Lucy’s house →
✅ her house
❌ she's house
Possessive adjectives are a little bit like pronouns (they replace a noun), but we call them adjectives because we only use them to describe another noun:
my house
= the house that belongs to me
your house
= the house that belongs to you
their house
= the house that belongs to them
Your question is: What are the possessive adjectives in English? My answer is simple. They are those seven little words that will tell your listener who something belongs to. Let’s get started on our explanation.
The main possessive adjectives in English are given below. Notice that there is one possessive adjective for each English personal pronoun.
Personal pronoun | Possessive adjective |
|---|---|
I | my |
you | your |
we | our |
they | their |
he | his |
she | her |
it | its |
A couple small points about these possessive adjectives:
The possessive adjective you choose will match the owner of something, not the thing that is owned:
I own the books →
✅ my books
❌ their books
If you don't know the owner's gender, you can use singular theiror you can use the phrase his or her. Both are acceptable.
Each kid grabbed their lunch.
Each kid grabbed his or her lunch.
If the owner uses the non-binary pronouns they/them, or if you choose not to specify the gender of the owner, you can use “singular they” and say their.
Jonah usually eats their lunch at noon.
Valerie is finished with their audition.
Be careful of these confusing spellings!
Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
their | belongs to them | It is their house. |
they're | they are | They’re running away. = They are running away. |
there | to/at that place | We ran there. It is there. |
its | belongs to it | This is its shelf. |
it’s | it is / it has | It’s running away. = It is running away. It’s been here before. = It has been here before. |
There is also one more possessive adjective in English: whose.
Whose is the -whquestion word we use when we are asking who the owner of something is.
Whose dog is this?
It can also introduce a relative clause that describes the owner of something:
The person whose dog stole my sandwich…
You might notice that whose is based on the word who.
who
whose
But be careful about the spelling!
Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
whose | belongs to who? | Whose cat is this? |
who’s | who is...? | Who's there? = Who is there? Who's been here before? = Who has been here before? |
Use a possessive adjective to say who owns or “possesses” an object. A possessive adjective replaces a noun + possessive -’s.
John’s book is on the table → His book is on the table.
I drove Patricia’s car. → I drove her car.
The hamster ate the hamster’s dinner. → The hamster ate its dinner.
Jane and Michael’s room is upstairs. → Their room is upstairs.
I went to Fabrizio's house. → I went to their house.
You may recall that you can also create a possessive construction by placing the possessor after of:
the door’s handle
= the handle of the door
But we only use the possessive adjective before the noun:
✅ the door’s handle
✅ its handle
✅ the handle of the door
❌ handle its
❌ handle of its
We do not add possessive -’s to personal pronouns:
❌ I’s, you’s, he’s, she’s, it’s, we’s, they’s
✅ my, your, his, her, its, our, their
In some dialects, there is a special word for plural you like y’all, you guys, yinz, or youse. To make these expressions into possessive adjectives, just add the normal -’s:
you guys → you guys’
y’all → y’all’s
However, these possessive forms are very informal. It is always safe to say your.
You can use a possessive adjective in all the same cases where you can use noun + -’s, but there are a few little rules to learn.
In English, you can use a possessive adjective any time you would use the possessive -’s. Like a possessive noun (noun + -’s), we use possessive adjectives to show that one noun owns or has a close relationship with another noun:
Use a possessive adjective when one noun is owned by another:
Mary brought her book.
Our tiny house is green and yellow.
Use a possessive adjective to show a close relationship with another noun, for example:
Jill likes Mike. She is his friend.
Mike is Maddy’s father. He is her father.
Mr. Swift teaches Maddy and Luke. He is their teacher.
Someone uses or attends a institution, group, or meeting:
Her university is over 100 years old.
Their book club is reading 100 Years of Solitude.
My chess team has won three tournaments this year.
One thing is part of another thing:
Its wing is broken!
You need to cut your hair.
Have a look at our post on possessive constructions in English for a more extensive list of the different kinds of possessive relationships.
Here are the main rules about where to put possessive adjectives in a sentence. They start basic, and get more advanced:
Possessive adjectives go before the noun they modify, just like all English adjectives. So the owner comes first (my, her , ...), and then the owned thing (tree, son, ...).
This is my tree.
Jimmy is her son.
Possessive adjectives are determiners in English. This means:
The possessive adjective also will always come before all other adjectives.
This is my old tree.
Jimmy is her young, happy son.
You can’t use them with another determiner, like the or this:
❌ the my tree → ✅ my tree
❌ this her son → ✅ her son
ONLY use a possessive adjective before a noun. Do not use them alone after to be or any other linking verb. Instead use a possessive pronoun or add a noun after the possessive adjective:
❌ This tree is my
✅ This is my tree.
✅ This tree is mine.
A noun with a possessive pronoun is definite. This means that:
my dog
= the dog that I own
my dogs
= the dogs that I own
If the owner is a pronoun, but the noun is indefinite, you’ll need to use this structure, but with possessive pronouns instead:
a dog of mine
= a dog that I own
some dogs of mine
= some dogs that I own
We also use this structure in a few other cases where we want to express possession, but need to add another determiner before the noun. Check out this list of uses for of + possessive pronoun to learn more!
If there is more than one specific owner, do not use possessive adjectives:
❌ my and her apartment
❌ Sarah’s and my apartment
❌ my and Sarah’s apartment
Even native English speakers find this rule difficult! Here are some other options:
✅ our apartment
🆗 me and Sarah’s apartment
🆗 mine and Sarah’s apartment
✅ the apartment that Sarah/she and I share
Possessive adjectives in English are really easy to learn and use. You may have the same kind of possessive adjectives in your language! In this post, you’ve seen that:
There eight possessive adjectives in English: my, your, our, their, his, her, its, and whose.
Each possessive adjective is related to a personal pronoun.
We use possessive adjectives in place of noun + -’s. This means we use them when one noun owns another noun, or when two nouns are in a close relationship.
Possessive adjectives always come before the noun and before all other adjectives.
If you want to get some practice on using possessive adjectives, why don’t you take a look at the possessive adjective activities we’ve prepared? Or, review what we’ve looked at with our printable possessive adjective table!
