Possessive Pronouns

You thought possessive adjectives were confusing. Well, you often confuse possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns. So we better review possessive pronouns. First, let's look at the table of subject pronouns and their respective possessive adjectives.


 SUBJECT         POSSESSIVE        POSSESIVE

PRONOUN         ADJECTIVE         PRONOUNS
     I                     my                       mine

   you                   your                     yours
    he                    his                         his
   she                   her                       hers
    it                      its                         its
   we                    our                       ours
  they                  their                     theirs


Keep in mind that possessive adjectives act like normal adjectives. That means they go in front of nouns, and they are never plural.

On the other hand, possessive pronouns act like normal pronouns. That means they stand ALONE without another noun or pronoun beside them.Possessive pronouns can be singular or plural.

For example:
Those are Adam's apples. = Those are his apples. = Those are his.

That is the children's ball. = That is their ball. = That is theirs.


Adam's apples are delicious. = His apples are delicious. = His are delicious. 

The children's ball is red. = Their ball is red. = Theirs is red.


Notice that the possessive adjectives his and theirs go before the nounsapples and ball, while in the second sentences, the possessive pronoun his and theirs is alone without the nouns apples or ball.


Also, we can use a third-person-singular possessive pronoun, like his, to subsitute a plural noun, like apples, and a third-person-singular possessive pronoun, like theirs, to substitute a singular noun, like ball.


The person of the possessive pronoun depends on WHO the object belongs to. Since Adam is third person singular, we use his, and since children is third person plural, we use theirs.