possessive pronoun

Definition:

A pronoun that shows ownership. The weak possessive pronouns (also called possessive determiners) function as adjectives in front of nouns. The weak possessive pronouns are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. Strong (or absolute) possessive pronouns stand on their own: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. A possessive pronoun never takes an apostrophe. See also:

• Possessive Determiner
• Using the Different Forms of Pronouns

Examples and Observations:

• "Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."
  (Oscar Wilde)



• "Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
  (Albert Einstein)



• "Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man's attitude may be, that problem is hers--and before it can be his, it is hers alone."
  (Margaret Sanger)



• "Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."
  (William Blake)



• "The possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, etc.) are like possessive determiners, except that they constitute a whole noun phrase.
  1. The house will be hers you see when they are properly divorced.
  2. Writers have produced extraordinary work in conditions more oppressive than mine.
  Possessive pronouns are typically used when the head noun can be found in the preceding context; thus in 1, hers means 'her house,' and in 2, mine means ' my conditions.' Here the possessive pronoun is parallel to the elliptic use of the genitive."
  (D. Biber, S. Conrad, and G. Leech, Longman Student Grammar of Student and Written English, Pearson, 2002)

Also Known As: possessive determiner, possessive adjective