Possession

• Possessive adjectives
• Possessive pronouns
• "To belong"
• The "s" of possession
• "Whose"

In English possession may be expressed in five different ways:

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives agree with the person to whom they refer:

• I --> my
• you --> your
• he, she, it --> his (masculine), her (feminine), its (impersonal)
• we --> our
• they --> their

  So,

• I have lost my keys.
• They are coming in their car.
• I met your grandparents.
• This car has lost its power.

Note: In English the possessive adjective is used to refer to parts of the body:

• She brushes her teeth twice a day.
• He broke his arm playing soccer.
• His stomach aches.

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns, like the adjectives, agree with the person to whom they refer. Singular and plural share the same form:

• I --> mine
• your --> yours
• he, she, it --> his (masculine), hers (feminine), its (impersonal)
• we --> ours
• they --> theirs

  So,

• I have my likes, and she has hers.
• If you give me one of yours, I'll give you one of mine.
• I like our house, but frankly, I am jealous of theirs!
• That's mine!

The verb "to belong to"

The verb "to belong to" indicates ownership or possession:

• That poodle belongs to Louise.
• The world belongs to you.

The "s" of possession

One may add "--'s" to any noun in order to indicate possession:

• I just read Gustave's book.
• The front door's lock is broken.
• Many of the world's countries are poor.

Note: Do not confuse the "s" of possession with the contraction of the verb "is":

• Fred's going to fetch it. (= Fred is going to fetch it.)
• The train's late again. (=The train is late again.)

"Whose" for indicating possession

"Whose" will be placed before the possession (the object possessed), and will refer ownership to the preceding noun:

• The man whose dog bit me said he was sorry. (The dog belongs to the man.)
• Here is the woman whose daughter I intend to marry.(The woman is the mother of the daughter.)

Back to Index