When you’re starting to learn English grammar, learning about possessives can be especially tricky. And it’s definitely the case when you need to learn how to tell possessive adjectives and pronouns apart – because they can seem so similar!
As both forms are used to describe ownership, you can choose whether or not to use an adjective or a pronoun in a sentence, but you must be careful to make sure you have the right construction!
Possessive pronouns are words like mine, yours, ours, his, hers and theirs. They are used alone.
Example: Mandy’s car is yellow. Mine is white.
Possessive adjectives are words like my, your, our, his, her, its and their. They are used before nouns.
Example: My car is bigger than her car.
Choose whether each sentence requires a possessive pronoun or a possessive adjective.
1. He showed me his answers and I showed him __________.
- mine
- my
2. Is that _________ book?
- yours
- your
3. Is that their apartment? No, it’s ________________.
- our
- ours
4. These are all __________ children.
- their
- theirs
5. Here, take it – it’s ________.
- your
- yours
6. Their house is much nicer than __________.
- our
- our
7. Their house is much nicer than ___________ house.
- our
- ours
8. Rachit is ___________ brother.
- mine
- my
9.. Is that your sister’s bike? Yes, it’s _________.
- hers
- her
10. This is _________ restaurant.
- theirs
- their
11. She didn’t tell me about _________ vacation.
- hers
- her
12. Isn’t that __________ book?
- their
- theirs
13. I found my pen, but I couldn’t find __________.
- your
- yours
14. How many of these CDs are ____________?
- their
- theirs
15. It’s _____________ turn.
- my
- mine
16. No, it’s ___________.
- my
- mine
17. What are you getting her for ___________ birthday?
- hers
- her
18. Can I borrow ________ cell phone?
- your
- yours
19. Don’t borrow his, borrow ________________.
- hers
- her
20. Why did they ask you to lend them money? Because they spent all of ____________.
- theirs
- their
21. She’s not his friend, she’s ____________.
- my
- mine
22. Roshan didn’t drink his own coffee. He drank _________.
- hers
- her
23. That is one of _________ friends.
- hers
- her
24. His neighborhood is safe, while __________ neighborhood isn’t.
- my
- mine
25. His neighborhood is safe, while__________ isn’t.
- my
- mine
26. Did __________ mother call?
- your
- yours
27. I don’t know ___________ very well.
- them
- their
28. I don’t know ________ daughter very well.
- them
- their
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