Possessive adjectives indicate ownership or possession of a noun and are similar to pronouns but function differently. Common examples include ‘its’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘my’. They are always used with a noun and are sometimes called possessive determiners. The definite article ‘the’ can also be used in a similar way. ‘Its’ is often misspelled with an apostrophe.
A possessive adjective is used in conjunction with a noun to indicate that someone has ownership or possession over that noun. While these words are shaped similar to pronouns in appearance and are sometimes labeled possessive pronouns, they function very differently from pronouns. Functionally, however, these words are used in much the same way as determiners such as the definite article “the”, and thus are sometimes called possessive determiners. Due to the emergence of the possessive adjective “its”, it can often be misspelled with an apostrophe.
In English, possessive adjectives usually look a lot like pronouns and are therefore sometimes referred to as possessive pronouns. Common possessive adjectives in English include ‘its’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘my’, all of which are similar to pronouns like ‘it’, ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘me’. “She” is used both as a pronoun and as a possessive adjective and can be used together in a sentence such as “I know her; that is her husband over there.’ However, the term “possessive pronoun” is a misnomer, as these words cannot be used to replace nouns within a sentence. In fact, a possessive adjective is always used with a noun in sentences like “my car,” “her book,” or “her sense of direction.”
This usage has led to the phrase “possessive determiner” to describe these types of words, which is more grammatically accurate. Determiners include articles such as “to” or “the,” and the definite article “the” can be used in much the same way as a possessive adjective, although it does not indicate ownership. Just as someone may say “the car is blue,” that speaker may also say “my car is blue” or “his car is blue.” Possessive adjectives can also be used with sentences indicating quantity in a very similar way to the direct article “the”; “the three cars” can easily be replaced with “my three cars” or “their three cars”.
When a possessive adjective in English is used with other adjectives, it almost always comes first in sentences like “My big, blue house” or “Their smart, beautiful children.” A common mistake in written English occurs due to the possessive nature of the adjective “its”. For many words, possessive forms can be created through the use of an apostrophe and the letter “s”, such as “Dog’s ball” or “My brother’s car”. In contrast to this, however, the possessive adjective “its” does not have an apostrophe, and the word “it’s” is a contraction for “it is” or “it has”.
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