English possessive adjectives: What are they and how to use them?

There is also one more possessive adjective in English: whose.

• Whose is the -whquestion word we use when we are asking who the owner of something is.

  Whose dog is this?

  Who owns this dog?

• It can also introduce a relative clause that describes the owner of something:

  The person whose dog stole my sandwich…

  The person that is the owner of the dog that stole my sandwich…

You might notice that whose is based on the word who.

• Personal pronoun:

  who
• Possessive adjective:

  whose

But be careful about the spelling!

Use a possessive adjective to say who owns or “possesses” an object. A possessive adjective replaces a noun + possessive -’s.

• John’s book is on the table → His book is on the table.
• I drove Patricia’s car. → I drove her car.
• The hamster ate the hamster’s dinner. → The hamster ate its dinner.
• Jane and Michael’s room is upstairs. → Their room is upstairs.
• I went to Fabrizio's house. → I went to their house.

  Singular they! Fabrizio might use non-binary they/them pronouns, or maybe the speaker just chose not to mention Fabrizio's gender.

We do not add possessive -’s to personal pronouns:

• ❌ I’s, you’s, he’s, she’s, it’s, we’s, they’s
• ✅ my, your, his, her, its, our, their

You can use a possessive adjective in all the same cases where you can use noun + -’s, but there are a few little rules to learn.

In English, you can use a possessive adjective any time you would use the possessive -’s. Like a possessive noun (noun + -’s), we use possessive adjectives to show that one noun owns or has a close relationship with another noun:

• Use a possessive adjective when one noun is owned by another:

  • Mary brought her book.
  • Our tiny house is green and yellow.

• Use a possessive adjective to show a close relationship with another noun, for example:

  • Jill likes Mike. She is his friend.
  • Mike is Maddy’s father. He is her father.
  • Mr. Swift teaches Maddy and Luke. He is their teacher.

• Someone uses or attends a institution, group, or meeting:

  • Her university is over 100 years old.
  • Their book club is reading 100 Years of Solitude.
  • My chess team has won three tournaments this year.

• One thing is part of another thing:

  • Its wing is broken!
  • You need to cut your hair.

Here are the main rules about where to put possessive adjectives in a sentence. They start basic, and get more advanced:

• Possessive adjectives go before the noun they modify, just like all English adjectives. So the owner comes first (my, her , ...), and then the owned thing (tree, son, ...).

  • This is my tree.
  • Jimmy is her son.

• Possessive adjectives are determiners in English. This means:

  • The possessive adjective also will always come before all other adjectives.

    possessive adjectivedescriptive adjective

    This is my old tree.

    Jimmy is her young, happy son.

  • You can’t use them with another determiner, like the or this:

    • ❌ the my tree → ✅ my tree
    • ❌ this her son → ✅ her son

  • ONLY use a possessive adjective before a noun. Do not use them alone after to be or any other linking verb. Instead use a possessive pronoun or add a noun after the possessive adjective:

    ❌ This tree is my

    ✅ This is my tree.

    ✅ This tree is mine.

• A noun with a possessive pronoun is definite. This means that:

  • my dog

    Translation: = the dog that I own
  • my dogs

    Translation: = the dogs that I own

  If the owner is a pronoun, but the noun is indefinite, you’ll need to use this structure, but with possessive pronouns instead:

  • a dog of mine

    Translation: = a dog that I own
  • some dogs of mine

    Translation: = some dogs that I own

  We also use this structure in a few other cases where we want to express possession, but need to add another determiner before the noun. Check out this list of uses for of + possessive pronoun to learn more!

• If there is more than one specific owner, do not use possessive adjectives:

  • ❌ my and her apartment
  • ❌ Sarah’s and my apartment
  • ❌ my and Sarah’s apartment

  Even native English speakers find this rule difficult! Here are some other options:

  • ✅ our apartment

    Good grammar, but it can be confusing. Who is “our”?
  • 🆗 me and Sarah’s apartment

    Very clear, but used only in very casual speech. This is not “proper” English.
  • 🆗 mine and Sarah’s apartment

    Again, very clear, and a little less casual, but still not “proper” English.
  • ✅ the apartment that Sarah/she and I share

    It is long, but it is both correct and clear. Use a solution like this in writing.