Possesive pronoun

Question

Hello Teachers,

There are two types of possesive pronoun.

such as (my, mine), (our, ours),(their,theirs),(his),(her,hers),(its)

1.The first ones which are without 's' like my,her,their e.t.c take noun.

2.The second ones like 'mine','ours','theirs' stand alone.

I have some doubt about these. They are as

1.Sometime ,the first one (1) is referred as possesive adjective, but same time they are classified as possesive pronoun. what is your opinion about it?

2. I want to know the usage of (2). I know a few of them such as

They can be a subject of a sentence or complement of a subject.

A) Mine is a new car.

b) This pen is yours.

Can they be used as object of preposition?

What are the other uses of these?

Thanks.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

My opinion is that "my", "his", "her", "its", "our", "your", "their" should be called possessive adjectives; "mine", "his", "hers", "its", "ours", "yours", "theirs" should be called possessive pronouns.

The adjective forms are used to modify nouns (like other adjectives are):

my car, his house, ...

The pronoun forms stand alone in place of a possessive adjective and its noun. Of course, there has to be enough context so that you can tell which noun is being omitted.

Whose car is it?
It is my car. = It's mine.

Whose house is that?
It's his house. = It's his.

Whose book is this?
It is your book. = It's yours.

The pronouns can be used in the same places as nouns -- subject, object, etc.

I think yours is the best example. (I think your example is the best example.)

Do you prefer John's kite or mine? (Do you prefer John's kite or my kite?)

CJ

Mister Micawber · Answer

I prefer to think of them as two forms of possessive personal pronouns. 'My/our/your/his/her/its/their' are determiners, while 'mine/ours/yours/his/hers/its/theirs' are pronouns sensu strictu.

As such, they can be used pretty much the same way as other deteminers and pronouns (I say very offhandedly).

PS: this is not a frontal attack on Jim's comments: we were typing simultaneously. Interesting, the different opinions on this one, though, eh?

Anonymous · Answer

I want to know if there is an apostrophe "s" used with possesive case "yours". If yes when do we use it.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Never an apostrophe in hers, yours, ours, theirs, his or its (when its is possessive). It's always wrong.

Anonymous · Answer

what is the rules of the possesive pronoun?

Mister Micawber · Answer

.
What part do you not understand about them?

Huevos · Answer

Mister Micawberare determiners

Just a terminology thing: CJ says possessive adjectives whereas you say determiners. What makes these determiners?

CalifJim · Answer

Huevos
Mister Micawberare determiners
Just a terminology thing: CJ says possessive adjectives whereas you say determiners. What makes these determiners?

Possessive adjectives are just one class of determiners. Articles, demonstrative adjectives, numbers, and quantifiers are other classes of determiners.
my, his, ..., a, an, the, this, that, these, those, one, two, three, ..., some, all, every, many, ... are all determiners.
So there is no conflict between my focus on the possessive and adjectival properties and Mr. M.'s focus on the superclass called determiners.
(Technically, a determiner is not an adjective -- not a central case of "adjective" anyway (like red and round) -- so maybe 'possessive determiner' and 'demonstrative determiner' are better terms. It all depends on which author you read. They all have different preferences as regards terminology.)
CJ

Possesive pronoun

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