Bienvenido a Platzi

Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Nouns

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are words that indicate who the noun belongs to. Let’s look at these possessive adjectives:

• I → My
• She → Her
• He → His
• It → Its
• We → Our
• They → Their
• You → Your

Examples:

• Their computer crashed, so they had to use my laptop for the meeting.
• That is your cubicle.
• Josh gave feedback to his team.
• Our department achieved its quarterly sales targets.
• Her presentation skills are excellent.

Possessive Pronouns

These words indicate ownership or possession.

• I → Mine
• She → Hers
• He → His
• It → *
• We → Ours
• They → Theirs
• You → Yours

Examples:

• I completed my part of the report, and now it’s yours to review.
• The port is hers, and she is responsible for its successful completion.
• The decision is his. He has the final say in this matter.
• The presentation is theirs; they collaborated on it and did an excellent job.

Let’s remember that we use pronouns to sound less repetitive. So instead of saying:

• Those are my headphones, not your headphones.
• Those are my headphones, not yours.

Both are correct, but the first one is a bit repetitive. We can combine them to sound more natural.

Activity

Listen to a conversation and complete the sentences.

• The glasses in the lounge area belonged to Amy.
• The glasses in the bathroom belonged to Noah.
• The person who had Kevin’s glasses was Paula.