Possessive pronouns are pronouns that show possession.

Read and study the following pairs of sentences.

• John Louis spent his birthday in an orphanage. His birthday was one of a kind.

• Miss Santos gave special gifts to orphans last Christmas. Her gifts were school items.

• This is the Philippines. This is our country.

• I answered the difficult question. My answer was correct.

• They gave donations to the typhoon victims. Their donations were old clothes and canned goods.

In these sentences, the words their, my, our, her, and his are possessive pronouns as they show possession.

Your and its also show possession.

• Is that your house?

• This table is very old. Its legs need to be repaired.

These pronouns are always followed by nouns - birthday, gifts, country, answer, donations, house, legs.

The pronouns theirs, mine, ours, hers, and yours are also possessive pronouns but they are not followed by a noun.

Examples:

• This notebook is mine.

• This project is theirs.

• This house is ours.

• This pen is yours.

• These crayons are hers.

The possessive pronoun his may or may not be followed by a noun.

Examples:

• This is his book.

• The book is his.