If you’re learning English, you’ll see possessive adjectives like my and your everywhere! These words are used to show ownership or possession, and they’re pretty straightforward, so you’ll feel confident using them in no time. Here's how possessive adjectives work in English!

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What are possessive adjectives in English?

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Possessive adjectives are used with nouns to show who owns or possesses the noun.

In English, a possessive adjective always appears before the noun that is possessed or owned. For example:

  • Wait, that’s my scarf!
  • Where is your phone?
  • Our daughter likes to draw.

What are the different possessive adjectives in English?

English possessive adjectives change depending on whether the one who does the possessing or owning is in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, and whether it’s a single person or a group of people:

PERSON POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE
1st singular
(I)		 my
2nd singular
(you)		 your
3rd singular
(he / she / it)		 his
her
its
1st plural
(we)		 our
2nd plural
(you)		 your
3rd plural
(they)		 their

While your is the most common possessive adjective to refer to a group of people directly (the 2nd person plural), regional variations exist in informal language, including you all’s, y'all’s, yinz’s, and you guys’.


Be careful not to confuse the possessive adjective its with the contraction it’s. While they look really similar, its is used to show possession, but it’s (notice the apostrophe!) is short for it is or it has.


If the gender of the person you’re talking about is unknown or irrelevant to the conversation, you’ll often use their instead of his or her, for example: Someone left their notebook in the classroom. This is also the possessive adjective you’ll use in gender-neutral language, like when you’re referring to someone who is non-binary.

How to use possessive adjectives

1) The possessor determines the form of the possessive adjective.
In English, the details of the noun that is possessed don't matter when choosing the correct possessive adjective. The only important thing is who possesses or owns the noun. For example, if you want to say that something belongs to your sister, you always use the possessive adjective her because the possessor (your sister) is a 3rd person singular noun and female. It doesn’t matter whether your sister has one book or a million, whether she has a car or a cat or a house, etc.—the possessive adjective for your sister is always her:

  • Her book is over there.
  • Did she read all of her books?
  • She’s late because her car broke down.
  • Lucy is spending the day with her cat.
  • Where is her house?

And guess what—if the person who owns all of these things is your brother rather than your sister, you simply use the male 3rd person singular possessive adjective his instead:

  • His book is over there.
  • Did she read all of his books?
  • He’s late because his car broke down.
  • Vikram is spending the day with his cat.
  • Where is his house?
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In English, possessive adjectives match the person who possesses the noun, not the noun being possessed.

2) Possessive adjectives—like all adjectives—go before the noun.
English possessive adjectives always go before the noun they describe, and if there are any other adjectives in the phrase, they go between the possessive adjective and the noun (English is very strict about the word order for adjectives!):

  • my book
  • my new book
  • my new green book
  • my enormous new green book with all the plants on the cover

Note that possessive adjectives are used instead of the articles the, a, and an. So you can use either a possessive adjective or an article, but not both.

Possessive adjectives vs. possessive pronouns

Another way to talk about possession and ownership is with the help of possessive pronouns like mine and yours. The forms for these can look similar (or even identical!) to those of possessive adjectives like my and your, but they’re used differently.

Notice how possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns differ in which part of the sentence they replace:

POSSESSOR NOUN PHRASE This heavy package is Fiona’s package.
POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE This heavy package is her package.
POSSESSOR + POSSESSEE NOUN PHRASE This heavy package is Fiona’s package.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUN This heavy package is hers.

An easy way to remember when you need to use a possessive adjective (like my) rather than a possessive pronoun (like mine) is trying to substitute it for an article (a, an, or the). For example, in the sentence My aunt’s car is over there, you could swap out my aunt’s for an article to say The car is over there. This means that you can use a possessive adjective where the goes: Her car is over there.

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Possessive adjectives (like my and your) replace the possessor and are used with the noun that is possessed. Possessive pronouns (like mine and yours), on the other hand, replace both the possessor and the possessed noun.

Here’s a complete overview of all forms for possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in English:

PERSON POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE POSSESSIVE PRONOUN
1st singular
(I)		 my mine
2nd singular
(you)		 your yours
3rd singular
(he / she / it)		 his
her
its		 his
hers
its
1st plural
(we)		 our ours
2nd plural
(you)		 your yours
3rd plural
(they)		 their theirs

Possessive adjectives are your time to shine!

Once you learn how to use possessive adjectives, you’ll be able to talk about how well *your* English learning journey is going, and you can ask others about *their* progress. 🙌

Examples of possessive adjectives in English

  • I always pack my red shirt.
  • Where is your suitcase?
  • The agent needs his passport.
  • Her seat is next to the window.
  • Its wings are enormous!
  • We checked our luggage.
  • Did you all bring your favorite snacks?
  • Their taxi will be waiting outside.