Possesive pronoun

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hanuman_2000

#81295 Tue, 15 Mar 05 03:50 AM

Hello Teachers,

There are two types of possesive pronoun.

such as (my, mine), (our, ours),(their,theirs),(his),(her,hers),(its)

1.The first ones which are without 's' like my,her,their e.t.c take noun.

2.The second ones like 'mine','ours','theirs' stand alone.

I have some doubt about these. They are as

1.Sometime ,the first one (1) is referred as possesive adjective, but same time they are classified as possesive pronoun. what is your opinion about it?

2. I want to know the usage of (2). I know a few of them such as

They can be a subject of a sentence or complement of a subject.

A) Mine is a new car.

b) This pen is yours.

Can they be used as object of preposition?

What are the other uses of these?

Thanks.

hanuman_2000

Joined on Thu, Aug 12 2004

INDIA

Contributing Member (1,604)

Nouns, Prepositions, Pronouns

CalifJim

#81304 Tue, 15 Mar 05 04:54 AM

My opinion is that "my", "his", "her", "its", "our", "your", "their" should be called possessive adjectives; "mine", "his", "hers", "its", "ours", "yours", "theirs" should be called possessive pronouns.

The adjective forms are used to modify nouns (like other adjectives are):

my car, his house, ...

The pronoun forms stand alone in place of a possessive adjective and its noun. Of course, there has to be enough context so that you can tell which noun is being omitted.

Whose car is it?
It is my car. = It's mine.

Whose house is that?
It's his house. = It's his.

Whose book is this?
It is your book. = It's yours.

The pronouns can be used in the same places as nouns -- subject, object, etc.

I think yours is the best example. (I think your example is the best example.)

Do you prefer John's kite or mine? (Do you prefer John's kite or my kite?)

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,533)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Nouns, Possessives, Pronouns

Mister Micawber

#81305 Tue, 15 Mar 05 04:54 AM

I prefer to think of them as two forms of possessive personal pronouns. 'My/our/your/his/her/its/their' are determiners, while 'mine/ours/yours/his/hers/its/theirs' are pronouns sensu strictu.

As such, they can be used pretty much the same way as other deteminers and pronouns (I say very offhandedly).

PS: this is not a frontal attack on Jim's comments: we were typing simultaneously. Interesting, the different opinions on this one, though, eh?

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (20,364)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Determiners, Nouns, Possessives, Pronouns

Anonymous

#218910 Sun, 23 Apr 06 08:17 AM

I want to know if there is an apostrophe "s" used with possesive case "yours". If yes when do we use it.

Anonymous

Apostrophes

Mister Micawber

#218924 Sun, 23 Apr 06 09:37 AM

Never an apostrophe in hers, yours, ours, theirs, his or its (when its is possessive). It's always wrong.

Mister Micawber

Apostrophes, Possessives

Anonymous

#551492 Wed, 06 Aug 08 08:36 AM

what is the rules of the possesive pronoun?

Anonymous

Nouns, Pronouns

Mister Micawber

#551559 Wed, 06 Aug 08 12:06 PM

.
What part do you not understand about them?

Mister Micawber

Huevos

#551562 Wed, 06 Aug 08 12:14 PM

Mister Micawber
are determiners

Just a terminology thing: CJ says possessive adjectives whereas you say determiners. What makes these determiners?

Huevos

Joined on Tue, Mar 25 2008

Spain

Full Member (432)

British Native

Determiners, Possessives

CalifJim

#551857 Thu, 07 Aug 08 03:28 AM

Huevos
Mister Micawber
are determiners
Just a terminology thing: CJ says possessive adjectives whereas you say determiners. What makes these determiners?

Possessive adjectives are just one class of determiners. Articles, demonstrative adjectives, numbers, and quantifiers are other classes of determiners.

my, his, ..., a, an, the, this, that, these, those, one, two, three, ..., some, all, every, many, ... are all determiners.

So there is no conflict between my focus on the possessive and adjectival properties and Mr. M.'s focus on the superclass called determiners.

(Technically, a determiner is not an adjective -- not a central case of "adjective" anyway (like red and round) -- so maybe 'possessive determiner' and 'demonstrative determiner' are better terms. It all depends on which author you read. They all have different preferences as regards terminology.)

CalifJim

Articles, Demonstrative Adjectives, Determiners, Numbers, Possessives, Regards

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