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 by what comes next. If a noun follows, the short form is needed. If no noun follows, the long one is.
Possessive adjectives and pronouns
Both forms show whose something is and answer the question “whose?”, which is why they are called possessive. The short form goes before a noun, a word naming a person, an animal or a thing. It is called a possessive adjective. The long form stands in place of a noun, and it is called a possessive pronoun.
The forms come in pairs, and there are only six pairs. The owner decides which pair to use.
| Owner | Before a noun | Instead of a noun |
|---|---|---|
| I | my book | mine |
| you | your book | yours |
| he | his book | his |
| she | her book | hers |
| we | our book | ours |
| they | their book | theirs |
The right column saves repeating the noun. 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 question word for ownership is whose. It is written with no apostrophe, because who's means who is.
Whose phone is ringing?
Your works for one person and for several, because English has a single you for both. And the long forms never take an apostrophe.
your's → yours, her's → hers, their's → theirs
His or her is chosen by the owner, not by the thing. The gender of the thing does not matter, because English nouns have no gender.
Taras visits his grandma on Sundays.
Olena calls her brother every day.
English has no word like the Ukrainian «свій», meaning “one's own”. It uses the possessive of whoever does the action instead. For I that is my, for she it is her, for we it is our.
We love our little kitchen.
Their sounds just like there, but there means “in that place”.
Their car is over there.
Possessives without an article
The short form already points at which thing is meant. So no article goes in front of it.
the my book → my book
The articles are the small words a, an and the before a noun. Both the and a are wrong here. An adjective, a word that describes a thing, goes between the possessive and the noun.
a my friend → my friend
my favourite song
How to tell its from 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.
To check, try saying it is in that spot. If it makes sense, the apostrophe belongs.
Its goes before a noun when the owner is a thing, a plant or an animal, an it. It behaves just like my or her.
The phone is old, but its camera is great.
How to form ’s
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 comes 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
So in writing the apostrophe shows how many owners there are. Before the s it means one, after the s it means several.
my sister's room
my sisters' room
And when the thing is shared by two people, the ending attaches to the second name only: Jack and Mia's flat.
If the thing has already been mentioned, it need not be repeated after ’s.
Whose keys are these? They're Mum's.
But ’s can also be short for is. If a place or a description follows it instead of a thing, it means is.
Tom's in the kitchen.
Common mistakes
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.
The first shows to the right of the word. If no noun follows it, the long form is needed. The second shows to the left, because a or the never comes before a possessive. The third is caught by the it is check. If it is does not fit in that spot, there is no apostrophe.