Possessive Pronouns

My cake turned out great. Yours doesn’t taste right.
There are several different possessive pronouns. These words are chosen based on:
- Number: mine is singular, ours is plural
- Person: 1st person uses mine, 2nd person uses yours or 3rd person uses
his or hers - Gender: males use his, females use hers
Below is a useful chart of possessive pronouns, with examples on how they can be used in sentences. Understand how each possessive pronoun can:
- Be the object or subject.
- Refer to a singular or plural noun that it stands for. This is referred to as the antecedent.
number | person | gender (of “owner”) | possessive pronouns |
singular | 1st | male/female | mine |
2nd | male/female | yours | |
3rd | male | his | |
female | hers | ||
plural | 1st | male/female | ours |
2nd | male/female | yours | |
3rd | male/female/neuter | theirs |
Mine
- This is a fast computer. Mine is slow. (subject = My computer)
- Your dog seems friendly. How nice is mine?(object = my dog)
Yours
- My cake turned out great. Yours doesn’t taste right. (object = your cake)
- My TV stopped working. Yours is still on. (subject = Your TV)
His
- His cat won a medal. (subject = his cat)
- Bill drank his coffee, but Betty spilt hers. (object = her coffee)
- Bill filed his taxes, but Betty forgot hers. (object = her taxes)
Ours
- Your cookies were burnt. Ours turned out great. (subject = Our cookies)
- Sally cut her grass. Ours still needs to be done. (subject = Our grass)
Theirs
- This isn’t Betty and Bill’s photo album. Theirs has flowers on it. (subject = Their photo album)
- Bill and Betty think their cookies are better than yours. What do you think of theirs? (object = their cookies)