A pronoun is a part of speech that is used instead of a name. Not “Pyotr Vasilyevich”, but “he”, not “the author of these lines”, but “I”. Possessive pronouns, just like personal pronouns, make the message shorter. Compare: “Peter Vasilievich’s shoes” and “his shoes”. Possessive pronouns in English, as well as in Russian, answer the questions "Whose" (Whose?), "To whom does it belong?"
This is my hat. - This is my hat.
Her cat trampled on my tulips! - Her cat trampled my tulips!
Your offer is very attractive, but I've already found the job. - Your offer is very attractive, but I have already found a job.
Types of Pronouns
Possessive pronouns in English can be divided into two large groups depending on whether they take a grammatical form - absolute or relative. The pronouns in absolute form are quite independent, while relative pronouns cannot be used autonomously - only before the noun.
Compare:
This is my suitcase (This is my suitcase). - This suitcase is mine (This suitcase is mine).
As you can see, in the Russian language the form of the pronoun has not changed. And in both cases we use the same word - “mine”. However, these two sentences have different semantic emphasis. The second statement is more categorical. But it's not only that. Self possessive pronoun is often necessary in order not to clutter speech with unnecessary repetitions. For example, take this dialog:
- Is it your car? (This is your car?).
- No, it is not my car. (No, this is not my car.).
And now another variant of the same dialogue:
- Is it your car? (This is your car?).
- No, it is not mine. (No, not mine.).
And if two people know what they are talking about, then the dialogue may look even shorter.
- Is it yours? (This yours?).
- No, it isn't mine. (No, not mine).
Relative possessive pronouns in English, as already mentioned, are used only before nouns. There are several subtleties: if there is a pronoun, then the article is no longer needed. After the pronoun may be another adjective. For example: my funny red ball - my funny sonorous ball. However, there are two adjectives that are used before relative possessive pronouns: both (both) and all (all). For example: All my balls are red.
A summary table of pronouns in English is given below.
| Personal pronouns | Possessive pronouns (relative form) | Possessive pronouns (absolute) | Example |
| I | my | mine | I am a musician. This is my violin. The violin is mine. |
| We | our | ours | We are students. This is our room. That computer is ours. |
| You | your | yours | You are a student. Is that book yours? Is that your book? |
| He | his | his | He is a freelancer. This is his site. This site is his. |
| She | her | hers | She is playing her violin. The violin is hers. |
| It | its | its | It is a cat. This is its house and this mat is its. |
| They | their | theirs | They are good friends. They are walking with their children. Children are theirs. |
Main difficulties
Learning forms is usually straightforward, as is understanding and translating English texts. But with the reverse translation, from Russian into English, some difficulties arise. For example, “I called him” and “this is his hat.” It would seem that here we see two completely identical words - “him”. But can we translate them the same way? If you well understood the essence of possessive pronouns, then you will not get confused in this situation. Possessive pronoun is used here only in the second case. Whose hat is this? - His. That is - his. But in the sentence "I called him," the pronoun in no way characterizes belonging. This pronoun in the genitive case answers the question “who?”, Respectively, here we need to use the pronoun he in the genitive case - him.
There is another common mistake. In the Russian language there is a universal pronoun "own." There is no such thing in English, we will speak instead of “ours” - her, instead of “ours” - their and so on. And what is important, this pronoun in some cases replaces a certain article, especially before nouns meaning personal things, close people or body parts. For example, "He put on glasses." As we see, we consider it unnecessary to indicate that he put on his glasses. This is implied. When constructing a phrase in English, we must use either the definite article or the possessive pronoun before the word glasses. In this case, the pronoun will sound more natural. He puts on his glasses.
How to learn possessive pronouns in English
On the advice of experienced teachers, learning grammar will not be difficult if you follow these rules: do not rush, disassemble all grammar rules using examples, and make tables yourself. In fact, pronouns are one of the simplest topics that English contains. Exercises, possessive pronouns in which are repeated in one form or another, can be found in a wide variety of tasks. The main exercise to consolidate the above material, which is found in textbooks or tests, is sentences with missing words, where you need to insert the correct form of possessive pronoun. In most cases, to master this topic, it is enough to perform 4-5 such exercises and analyze several texts.