A pronoun is a part of speech that is used instead of a name. Not "Peter Vasilyevich", but "he", not "the author of these lines", but "I". Possessive pronouns, just like personal pronouns, allow you to make a message more concise. Compare: “Peter Vasilyevich’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 on 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. Absolute pronouns are quite independent, while relative pronouns cannot be used autonomously - only before a noun.
Compare:
This is my suitcase (This is my suitcase). – This suitcase is mine (This suitcase is mine).
As you can see, the form of the pronoun has not changed in Russian. In both cases, we use the same word - "my". However, these two sentences have a different semantic emphasis. The second statement is more categorical. But it's not only that. An independent possessive pronoun is often necessary in order not to clutter up speech with unnecessary repetition. For example, take this dialogue:
- Is it your car? (Is this your car?).
- No, it is not my car. (No, this is not my car.).
And now another version of the same dialogue:
- Is it your car? (Is this your car?).
- No, it is not mine. (No, not mine.).
And if two people know what they are talking about, then the dialogue can look even shorter.
- Is it yours? (Is 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. A pronoun can be followed by another adjective. For example: my funny red ball is my cheerful 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 (All my balls are red).
Summary table of pronouns inEnglish is given below.
| Personal pronouns | Possessive pronouns (relative form) | Possessive pronouns (absolute form) | 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 the forms is usually as easy as understanding and translating English texts. But when translating back, from Russian into English, some difficulties arise. For example, "I called him" and "this is his hat." It would seem that we see here two completely identical words - “his”. But can we translate them the same way? If you understand well the essence of possessive pronouns, then you will not get confused in this situation. The possessive pronoun is usedhere 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 ownership. This is a pronoun in the genitive case, answering the question "who?", respectively, here you need to use the pronoun he in the genitive case - him.
There is another common mistake. In Russian there is a universal pronoun "his". There is no such thing in English, we will say instead of “ours” - her, instead of “ours” - theirs, and so on. And what is important, this pronoun in some cases replaces the definite article, especially before nouns that mean personal things, close people or parts of the body. For example, "He put on his glasses." As you can see, we consider it superfluous to indicate that he put on his own glasses. This is implied. When building a phrase in English, we must use either the definite article or the possessive pronoun before the word glasses. In this case, it is the pronoun that will sound more natural. He puts on his glasses.
How to learn possessive pronouns in English
On the advice of experienced teachers, it will not be difficult to study grammar if you follow these rules: do not rush, analyze all the grammar rules with examples, make tables yourself. In fact, pronouns are one of the simplest topics that the English language contains. Exercises in which possessive pronouns are repeated in one form or another can be found in a wide variety of tasks. Basic exercise forto consolidate the above material, which is found in textbooks or tests, these are sentences with missing words, where you need to insert the correct form of the possessive pronoun. In most cases, to master this topic, it is enough to complete 4-5 of these exercises and analyze several texts.
