Possessive pronouns are pronouns used to show ownership. They tell us who owns what when we don’t want to or don’t need to repeat the name of what is owned.

As with all pronouns, possessive pronouns replace a noun (the word pronoun comes from Latin and means in place of a noun). In fact, pronouns are used to avoid repetition.

Is this Sheila’s bag? No, it’s mine.

The possessive pronoun mine helps us avoid repeating the noun bag.

Leila was our cat. Actually, I say ours but it was in fact my brother’s cat. Leila was totally his, and she adored him!

Ours and his replace the Possessive Adjective + Noun construction.

List of Possessive Pronouns

• mine (sth. belongs to me – I own it)

• yours (sth. belongs to you (singular) – you own it)

• his (sth. belongs to him – he owns it)

• hers (sth. belongs to her – she owns it)

• its (sth. belongs to it – it owns it)

• ours (sth. belongs to us – we own it)

• yours (sth. belongs to your (plural) – you own it)

• theirs (sth. belongs to them – they own it)

Its and It’s

Be careful here.

Its is a possessive pronoun used with things or animals, and generally to indicate neutral gender ownership.

It’s is a contraction for it is or it has.