Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns show ownership.

How good is your vocabulary? Let's take a little peek into the dictionary...

That was short.

Knowing that will help you remember what these kinds of pronouns do.

Sometimes they are used alone, and sometimes they are used before nouns.

Here are the pronouns that can be used alone:

Example:

Notice that the word mine is just minding its own business in that sentence. It's not modifying anything.

Here are the pronouns that are used before nouns:

Example:

Now the word my is not minding its own business.

It's not being rude or anything, but it is helping to tell us a little bit more about the noun cookie.

It is modifying a noun. Because of this, you could also say that these pronouns are adjectives.

It's like they are both pronouns and adjectives.

People often get confused and think that apostrophes belong in possessive pronouns. It's not true. Don't do it!

Incorrect:

Correct:

Note that the word it's is different from the word its.

It's is a contraction for the two words it is.

Its is a possessive pronoun.

Used Alone

When acting alone, diagram the possessive pronoun just like you would diagram any other noun or pronoun.

You must decide which job it is performing in the sentence and diagram it accordingly.

Here is the diagram for the example sentence that we were using above.

It comes after the linking verb is, and it is acting as a predicate noun.

Used Before Nouns

When used before a noun, diagram the pronoun just like an adjective.

Find the noun that it is modifying, and place the pronoun on a slanted line under that noun.

In this little picture, you could place the pronoun anywhere that it says adjective.

Here is the diagram for the example sentence that we were using above.

Finished Possessive Pronouns? Go Back to the Parts of Speech

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