Possessive pronouns examples in English. Introduction to personal and possessive pronouns in English

02.07.2020

The study of any topic begins with its basics. The same goes for English pronouns. Yes, you can immediately rush into the pool with your head, studying all the subtleties of this topic. However, if you do not know how this or that pronoun is translated or pronounced, immediately combining the word with other members and making sentences with them will be at least difficult, and at most impossible. Therefore, if you are just starting your acquaintance with this topic, let's look at English pronouns with translation and pronunciation in order to avoid problems in their further development.

English pronouns types

To begin with, it is worth noting that the pronouns in English language divided into 9 types:

Personal Pronouns or Personal Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns or Possessive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns or Reflexive Pronouns
Reciprocal Pronouns or Reciprocal Pronouns
Interrogative Pronouns or Interrogative Pronouns
Relative and Conjunctive Pronouns or Relative and Connective Pronouns
Demonstrative Pronouns or Demonstrative Pronouns
Quantitative pronouns or Quantitative pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns and Negative Pronouns or Indefinite Pronouns and Negative Pronouns

Each species has a limited number of words that you need to remember to express your thoughts. These words, as a rule, consist of a small number of letters and do not contain sounds, the pronunciation of which can cause difficulties in initial stage. Let us dwell on each type in more detail and study the pronouns of the English language with transcription and translation.

English pronouns with translation and pronunciation: meaning and transcription

The main place among English pronouns is occupied by Personal Pronouns (Personal pronouns). This is the only group in which English allows for case inflection. Table for clarity:

face and number	Nominative case	Objective case
1 l., units	I(ah) - me	me(mi) - me / me / me
1 l., pl.	we(wee) - we	us[ʌs] (as) - us / us / us
2 l., unit	you(yuu) - you	you(yu) - to you / by you
2 l., pl.	you(yuu) - you	you(yu) - you / you / you
3 l., unit	he(hee) - he she[ʃi:] (shi) - she it(it) is/it	him(him) - his / him / them her(hyo) - her / her it(it) is
3 l., pl.	they[ðei] (zei) - they	them[ðem] (zem) - them / them / them

The second most important group is Possessive Pronouns or the group of possessive pronouns. It also has two forms: attached and absolute. They both answer the same question ("whose?"), but differ in that the first requires a noun after itself, while the second does not. Compare:

As you can see, these forms have something in common, but they are written and pronounced differently. Consider full list possessive pronouns:

Attached form	Absolute form
my (May) - mine	mine (mine) - mine
your (yo) - yours	yours (yors) - yours
his (his) - his	his (his) - his
her (hyo) - her	hers (hyos) - her
its (its) - his	its (its) - his
your (yo) - your	yours (yors) - your
our (oue) - our	ours (owers) - our
their [ðeə(r)] (zea) - their	theirs [ðeəz] (zeirs) - their

Reflexive Pronouns or reflexive pronouns - a group of pronouns, which is translated into Russian in the meaning of "himself (a)" and "yourself" depending on the situation:

The second part of these pronouns may remind you of the famous word "selfie" (selfie), which just came from the word "self" (himself). The first parts repeat the pronouns of the two above-mentioned groups.

Reciprocal Pronouns or reciprocal pronouns in English is the group that will probably take the least time to memorize. It consists of two words with the same meaning:

Pronoun	Translation	Transcription	Pronunciation
each other	each other	[ˌiːtʃ ˈʌðə(r)]	ich aze
one another	[ˌwʌnəˈnʌðə(r)]	one enase

The group of Interrogative Pronouns or the group of interrogative pronouns is more extensive. These pronouns, as the name implies, are used to form questions:

Pronoun	Translation	Transcription	Pronunciation
what	what / what		wat
who	who will win		hu
which	which / which		wich
whom	whom / to whom		hum
whose	whose		hus
how	how		how
why	why		wye
when	when		van
where	where / whither		vea

Relative and Conjunctive Pronouns or relative and connective pronouns are used in complex sentences. There are not so many of them, but you need to know these words:

Some words of this group and the group of interrogative pronouns are similar, but their functions and meanings are different.

Demonstrative Pronouns or demonstrative pronouns in English are also common in speech. Some of them have singular and plural forms:

	Pronoun	Translation	Transcription	Pronunciation
units h.	this	this / this	[ðis]	zys
plural	these	these	[ði:z]	zyz
units h.	that	that / that	[ðæt]	zet
plural	those	those	[ðəʊz]	zous
only ed. h.	such	such		sach
only ed. h.	(the) same	the same		diet

There are pronouns in English that denote quantity. They are called Quantitative pronouns or quantitative pronouns. These include:

Pronoun	Translation	Transcription	Pronunciation
much	a lot (with uncountable nouns)		match
many	many (with countable nouns)	[ˈmeni]	mani
little	little (with uncountable nouns)	[ˈlɪtl]	little
a little	a little (with uncountable nouns)	[əˈlɪtl]	e little
few	few (with countable nouns		phew
a few	several (with countable nouns)	[ə fjuː]	wow
several	several	[ˈsevrəl]	several

The most extensive group can rightfully be considered Indefinite Pronouns and Negative Pronouns or indefinite and negative pronouns. Most of them are formed by a combination of pronouns, which also independently perform the functions of this group, and other parts of speech:

Pronouns	Other parts of speech
thing [θɪŋ]	one	body [ˈbɒdi]	where
some	something (samsing) - something	someone (samuan) - someone	somebody (sambadi) - someone	somewhere (samvea) - somewhere
any [ˈeni]	anything (enising) - anything	anyone (eniuan) - someone	anybody (enibadi) - someone	anywhere (enivea) - somewhere
no	nothing (nasing) - nothing	no one (but one) - no one	nobody (nobadi) - nobody	nowhere (novea) - nowhere
every [ˈevri]	everything (eurising) - everything	everyone (evryuan) - all	everybody (evribadi) - everyone	everywhere (evrivea) - everywhere

And also pronouns:

Pronoun	Translation	Transcription	Pronunciation
other	another	[ˈʌðə(r)]	aze
another	[əˈnʌðə(r)]	enase

These were all English pronouns with translation and pronunciation. I would like to pay special attention to pronunciation. The fact is that the sounds of the English language are different from the sounds of Russian, so it is actually quite difficult to convey how pronouns are pronounced in English.

The options presented are close to English pronunciation and added to make them easier to understand at an elementary level. With such a pronunciation, you will definitely be understood, however, for a more correct sound, study transcriptions in English. For memorization correct pronunciation listening to audio of native speakers and imitating their way of speaking is also great.

Every personal pronoun in English has a corresponding possessive pronoun. Possessive Pronoun, which answers the question Whose? / Whose? English possessive pronouns do not have gender and number, which means that their form is unchanged and does not depend on the noun or other part of speech to which this pronoun refers:

my dog - my dog;
my dogs - my dogs.

The possessive pronoun my does not respond to a change in the number of the noun.

my granny - my grandmother;
my father - my dad.

The possessive pronoun my does not respond to a change in the gender of the noun. All other possessive pronouns behave in a similar way.

In English there is two types of possessive pronouns.

Dependent form - Сonjoint form.

The dependent form of possessive pronouns is always used only before nouns. You cannot use it separately! Such pronouns replace the article.

Absolute form - Absolute

The absolute form of possessive pronouns is always used without a subsequent noun - independently.

Table of possessive pronouns in English.

This is my sweater. – This sweater is mine.

This is my sweater. This sweater is mine.

Where is your dog? – Mine is here.

Where is your dog. - Mine is here.

My room is messy, but hers is a wonderful room.

My room is a mess, but hers is beautiful!

Note the use of absolute possessive pronouns in the examples. They are not followed by a noun, unlike the dependent form:

Absolute possessive pronouns. Absolute possessive pronouns.

Possessive pronouns in the absolute form are often used as part of of-constructions:

a brother of mine - my brother;
a cousin of hers - her cousin.

Mr. Black is a good business partner of theirs. “Mr. Black is their good business partner.

Russian possessive pronoun mine translated into English either by one of the possessive pronouns or by a phrase with own.

Molly is in her office. Molly is in her office.

Phrase with own we'll use when we want to underline a value of our own:

my own business - my own business, a business that belongs to me.

In a phrase with own, you must use the preposition of if the construction comes after the noun:

my own flat – a flat of my own

Every day when we speak Russian, we use possessive pronouns in a variety of sentences. We say: "my book", "his car". We can make a sentence: "He loves his dog." How to make such sentences or phrases in English? In this lesson, you will learn about possessive pronouns in English.

Number	Face	Personal pronoun in the general case	Translation
		I(always capitalized)
		you
		he
		she[ʃiː]
		it[ɪt]	it (replaces names inanimate objects and animals)
		we
		you
		they[reɪ]

Each personal pronoun corresponds to possessive pronoun.

Such a pronoun answers the question: WHOSE? - WHOSE?

The possessive pronoun is always placed before the noun in question. It shows who owns a particular item.

Book- my book (possessive pronoun) MY stands before the word book. It shows who owns the book.)

house- my house (The possessive pronoun MY comes before the word house. It shows who owns the house).

We are very lucky with English possessive pronouns. They do not change either in gender or in number and do not depend on the word that comes after it.

my book. - My book

My house. - My house.

my toys. - My toys.

Pronouns in Russian change.

And with the English pronoun everything is simpler, it will always remain the same as it was in the first phrase.

This is my book. - It's my book.

This is my house. - This is my home.

These are my toys. - These are my toys.

Look at the table:

	Possessive pronouns	Examples
	my (my, my, my, my)


	its (his, her)
	our (ours, ours, ours, ours)
	your (your, yours, yours, yours)

The exercise

Complete the sentence with possessive pronouns.

This is me and this is ______bag.
We are Tom and Kate and this is ______dog.
This is my father and this is _____car.
This is Kate and this is_______ doll.
This is my dog and this is______ bone.
These are my aunt and my uncle and this is _____house.
This is you and this is ______ pen.

Right answers:

This is me and this is my bag.
We are Tom and Kate and this is our dog.
This is my father and this is his car.
This is Kate and this is her doll.
This is my dog and this is its bone.
These are my aunt and my uncle and this is their house.
This is you and this is your pen.

Note

When we speak Russian, we often use pronouns: own, own, own.

It is not at all difficult for us to construct sentences such as:

Take your books;

I see my friends;

He loves his dog.

But in English there is no possessive pronoun that corresponds to the word "OWN". And already familiar possessive pronouns will help us to translate such sentences.

In order to correctly compose a sentence, you need to choose the appropriate possessive pronoun in meaning.

For instance:

I love my dog. (You will need the possessive pronoun my). I love my dog.

He loves my dog. - He loves his dog.

We love my dog. - We love our dog.

As you can see, if there is only one pronoun in Russian, then in English you will have to pay attention to who owns the subject.

Note.

Possessive pronouns in absolute form.

My dog - my dog

His book - his book

Answering the question: Whose book is this? - Whose book is this?

Most often, we answer briefly in Russian - mine / his.

How to do it in English?

Whose book is this? - It's mine.

Whose book is this? - My.

Compare offer.

This is my dog. (This is my dog).

This dog is mine. (This dog is mine).

In the sentence this dog is mine, the pronoun is in the absolute form.

An absolute possessive pronoun does not require a noun after itself.

This dog is mine. We do not need to say again that we are talking about a dog.

The possessive pronoun in its basic form always comes before the noun.

My dog. - My dog.

My cat. - My cat.

His car. - His car.

And possessive pronouns in the absolute form replace the noun.

This cat is mine. - This cat is mine.

This dog is his. - This dog is his.

Whose book is this? - It's mine.

Is this your hat?

No, it isn't. This hat is his.

Each possessive pronoun in the basic form corresponds to a possessive pronoun in the absolute form.

Read the table.

Possessive pronouns
Main form	Absolute form

Read the dialogue:

A: Whose bag is this? Is this yours?

B: No, it isn't. It isn't mine. My bag is white.

A: Oh, is it your mother's bag?

B: No, it isn't hers. Her bag is red.

A: I think it's Nick's bag?

B: No, it isn't his. His bag is black.

A: Then whose bag is it? Oh, it is my bag! It is my new bag!

Possessive (Possessivecase)

So, now you know how to pronounce words in English that indicate the ownership of an object: my book is my book, his car is his car.

But very often such words are not enough. For example, we always say: "This is my mother's book" or "This is my father's car" or we can say: "These are the books of our friends."

How to be then, how to translate such phrases into English? To cope with the task, we should learn about the possessive case. And here, when studying English, we were lucky again.

There are 6 cases in Russian, and only 2 in English: common (Common Case) and possessive (Possessive Case).

Nouns in the common case answer the question: who? and what? But nouns in the possessive case answer the question: whose? - whose?

In the possessive case, nouns can be in the singular and plural.

For English nouns in the singular possessive formed with a noun, after it we put an apostrophe and add the ending -S.

Mother bag - mother's bag.

Father car - father's car.

If we want to indicate the name of the person who owns this or that thing, then we add an apostrophe to this name, and then the ending -S.

Kate doll - Kate doll

Bobby cat - Bobby's cat

The possessive case for plural nouns is formed only with the help of an apostrophe.

After all, most of these nouns already have the ending -S. It is after this ending that we put the apostrophe.

My friends books. - Books of my friends.

Please note that when pronouncing the possessive case, you need to be very careful.

My friend book. - My friend's book.

My friends books.- Books of my friends.

Nothing changes in pronunciation. The only difference you see is in the spelling.

My parentsroom. My parent's room.

The boys shoes. Boys shoes.

Some English words form the plural incorrectly.

For instance:

Child - children (child - children)

Man - men (man - men)

Woman - women (woman - women)

Mouse - mice (mouse - mice)

For such nouns, the possessive case is formed in the same way as for singular nouns, that is, an apostrophe and the ending -S are added to the word.

The child toy - child's toy

The children's toys - children's toys

The man's hat - a man's hat

The men's hats - men's hats

The ending -S for nouns in the possessive case will be read differently.

Now you know how the possessive case is formed for nouns denoting animate objects, that is, when we talk about people or animals.

But what about the rest of the words? How, for example, to say: "roof of the house", or "trunk of a tree"?

In such cases, the preposition OF will come to our aid.

And we can say "roof of the house" as follows:

The roof the house - the roof of the house.

And the "tree trunk" will sound:

The trunk the tree - tree trunk.

Bibliography

Biboletova M.Z., Denisenko O.A., Trubaneva N.N. Enjoy English. Grade 2 - Title, 2011.

Vereshchagina I.N. ., Bondarenko K.A. Pritykina T . A. English textbook for grade 2 schools with in-depth study of English. - 6-9 ed. - M.: Education, 2006-2008.

Kaufman, Kaufman: English language. Happy English.ru. Happy English.ru. Textbook for grade 2. - Title, 2013.

Homework

Translate into English
His dog, her cat, my toy, their book, your pen;
This is Ben's notebook.
This is my uncle's car.
These are Steve's friends.
The color of the bus is yellow.
Complete the exercises in the link ().

Favorite English ().
Langust().
English online ().

We use pronouns to replace nouns in a sentence. Look at the word “pronoun” itself, it contains the main function of this part of speech: “ instead of having", that is " instead of a noun". Pronouns are used to diversify speech and not repeat the same word from sentence to sentence.

There are several types of pronouns in English: , and possessive. We paid special attention to each type of pronouns in a separate article.

Let's see how a native speaker teacher Alex talks about words that show that someone owns something.

When we want to say that someone owns something, we use possessive forms. As you can see Alex identified two forms: Possessive adjectives and Possessive Pronouns.

Possessive adjectives

Let's start considering possessive forms with possessive adjectives. Abroad these words are called Possessive adjectives. Such words show a sign of an object, phenomenon or person, therefore they are classified as adjectives, not pronouns:

my book. - My book. (what book? - mine)
His friend. - His friend. (what friend? - his)

In Russian textbooks English grammar it is written that my (your, his etc.) is a pronoun, but native English teachers insist that it is still an adjective, because it comes before a noun and defines it. Let's take a look at the table:

Personal pronoun	Possessive adjective	Translation
I	My	My
You	Your	Your
He	His	His
She	Her	Her
It	Its	His her
We	Our	Our
You	Your	Your
They	Their	Their

My cat likes to play with a ball. - My the cat loves to play with the ball.

She wants to talk to your manager. - She wants to talk to yours manager.

The teacher found his mistakes. The teacher found his errors.

I like her dress. - I like her the dress.

Our family likes to rest in Crimea, we adore its nature. – Our family loves to relax in the Crimea, we adore his nature.

They look after our children. - They look after our children.

He is speaking with their mother. - He talks to their mom.

Please note that in all examples after my (his, their) is a noun.

In Russian there is a universal word "our", which we simply change by numbers and persons. In English, the words “one’s own”, “one’s own”, “one’s own” should be translated as “mine”, “ours”, “his” / “hers”, respectively.

She cut mine finger. – She cut her finger.

I love my mom. – I love my mother.

Do my work. – Do your work.

Possessive pronouns

If you need to replace a noun in a sentence, you must use one of the possessive pronouns. Usually the noun is replaced so that there are no repetitions in the sentence.

This is not my pen, mine is purple. - This is not my pen, my purple (replaced my pen on the mine).

Personal pronoun	Possessive pronoun	Translation
I	Mine	My
You	Yours	Your
He	His	His
She	Hers	Her
It	Its	His her
We	Ours	Our
You	Yours	Your
They	Theirs	Their

Becky! That is mine! - This my, Becky!

My task is easier than yours. - My task is easier than your.

This is not his car, his is blue. - It's not his car. his- blue.

This is a friend of hers. - This her friend.

It is not their house theirs is bigger. - This is not their house. their more.

The general pattern for all possessive pronouns is that you do not need to use a noun after them, and, as a rule, it is at the end of the sentence. Also, take a look at this couple: a friend of mine and my friend. Both phrases mean the same thing - my friend, only after the preposition of use possessive pronouns rather than adjectives ( a friend of my).

Possessive pronouns in English are one of the topics covered at the Beginner level. It is really quite simple, since you only need to memorize about a dozen forms and words. English possessive pronouns do not decline by case, as in Russian. Compare: my book, my book, my book - my book.

Possessive pronouns: forms

There are two forms: conjunctive and absolute. Pronouns in the adjunctive form are not used on their own - only with the word being defined: my book (my book), our problems (our problems), her beauty (her beauty). Pronouns in the absolute form can be a full-fledged independent member of the sentence. It is not our problem. It is yours. - That's not our problem. It's yours.

Possessive first person pronouns

In the singular: my - mine (mine - mine). Possessive pronouns of the first person plural: our - ours (ours - ours). The mine form can also be used with defined words: those that start with a vowel or h, for example, mine heart, but such a phrase is obsolete and can only be found when reading poetry collections.

My hair is very long. - My hair is very long.

The world is mine. - This world is mine.

This dress is mine. - This dress is mine.

I like your dress. What do you think about mine? - I like your dress. How do you find mine?

Second person possessive pronouns

Singular pronouns: your - yours (yours - yours). Your cat has eaten all my sausage. - Your cat ate all my sausage. Make up your mind! - Come on, make up your mind! (here the possessive pronoun replaces the definite article).

This cat is yours. - This cat is yours (your).

The second person plural possessive pronouns have the same forms as the singular. For example: your (yours).

Third person possessive pronouns

In the singular: his - his (absolute form - his), her - hers (hers), its - his, her, belonging to this.

That hut is his, and this one is hers. This hut is his, and this is hers.

A smile of hers can make me happy. Her smile alone can make me happy.

It is worth dwelling on the possessive pronoun Its in more detail. In Russian, any object has its own gender. The window is it, the spoon is she, the chair is he, but in English all these items will be “it”. Therefore, the possessive pronoun Its is used in relation to all objects, animals and babies, if the gender of the animal or baby does not need to be emphasized.

Every nation has its own special features. - Each nation has its own characteristics.

Its tail is like a little bunch of hair, its ears are long. Who is it? - His tail is like a small tuft of wool, his ears are long. Who is this?

Possessive pronouns of the third person in the plural: their - theirs (theirs - theirs, belonging to them, colloquially - theirs). In Russian, the absolute form "their" is used extremely rarely, due to its difficulty in pronunciation. As a rule, it is used only with the word being defined.

Their friendship was amazing. Their friendship was amazing.

From my childhood to theirs. - Things i saved for my daughters. From my childhood to their childhood. - Things I kept for my daughters.

For ease of perception, all forms of possessive pronouns are given in the table.

Personal pronoun	Attachment form	Absolute form
I (I) - I have a talent.	My	Mine
You (You) - You have a talent.	Your	Yours
He (He) - He has a talent.	His	His
She (She) - She has a talent.	Her	Hers
It (It) - It has a talent.	Its
We (We) - We have a talent.	Our	Ours
They (They) - They have a talent.	Their	Theirs

As you can see, this is not the most difficult task - to remember all the possessive pronouns. English in this part of the grammar is easier than Russian. Foreigners who decide to learn our language will have to face more complex tables in which pronouns will change not only by person, but also by gender: there are four words for one English my in Russian - mine, mine, mine, mine.