Study materials
Two sentences, and in Ukrainian both use the same word for "mine". In English the words are different.
This is my coat.
This coat is mine.
The difference is set not by the meaning but by what comes next. If a noun follows, the short form is needed. If no noun follows, the long one is.
One form before the noun, another instead of it
The forms come in pairs, and there are only six pairs.
| Before a noun | Instead of a noun |
|---|---|
| my book | mine |
| your book | yours |
| his book | his |
| her book | hers |
| our book | ours |
| their book | theirs |
The right column exists so the noun is not repeated twice. Compare: This is my coat and that is your coat sounds clumsy, while that is yours is short and natural.
The room is ours.
Whose bag is this? It's hers.
The article is not wanted here
The short form already points at which thing is meant. So no article goes in front of it.
the my book → my book
Its and it's
This pair confuses even native speakers, though the difference is clear. Here the apostrophe marks missing letters, not ownership.
The dog wagged its tail.
It's cold today.
The check takes a second: try saying it is in that spot. If it makes sense, the apostrophe belongs.
The ’s form for owners
When the owner is a person or an animal, an apostrophe and an s are simply added to them. The order is the reverse of the Ukrainian one: the owner first, the thing second.
Anna's laptop
my brother's room
If there are several owners and the word already ends in s, only the apostrophe is added. With an irregular plural everything stays as usual.
my parents' car
the children's books
And when the thing is shared by two people, the ending attaches to the second name only: Jack and Mia's flat.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is taking the short form where there is no noun.
This book is my. → This book is mine.
The second is putting an article in front of a possessive.
She took the her bag. → She took her bag.
The third is writing an apostrophe where it means something else entirely.
The company changed it's name. → The company changed its name.
All three are caught by one glance to the right of the word. Is there a noun or not? That answer decides the form.
Try it right now
Take three things near you and say in English whose they are: one with the short form, one with the long form, one with ’s.
If no stray article appeared in any of them, the topic is done.