Possessive adjectives are words that show ownership or possession. They come before a noun to indicate who or what owns it. Here’s the list of common possessive adjectives in English:

• my
• your
• his
• her
• its
• our
• their

Examples

1. My car is parked outside.
2. Is this your book?
3. I saw his dog running down the street.
4. She brought her lunch to work.
5. The cat licked its paw.
6. We should bring our own drinks.
7. Do you know where their house is?

Notice how the possessive adjective always comes right before the noun it describes—never at the end of a sentence.

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Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns

It’s easy to confuse possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns, but there’s a key difference:

• Possessive adjectives are followed by a noun: This is my phone.
• Possessive pronouns replace the noun entirely: This phone is mine.

So, “my” is an adjective, while “mine” is a pronoun. Same goes for:

• your → yours
• his → his (same spelling, different function!)
• her → hers
• its → its (again, same form)
• our → ours
• their → theirs

Common Mistakes to Avoid

One of the most common mistakes is confusing its (possessive adjective) with it’s (contraction of “it is” or “it has”):

• The cat licked its paw.
• The cat licked it’s paw. (This would mean “it is paw” — which doesn’t make sense!)

Also, remember that possessive adjectives don’t use apostrophes like possessive nouns do:

• That’s my brother’s car.
• That’s my’s brother’s car. (Nope!)

Quick Recap

Subject	Possessive Adjective	Example
I	my	This is my laptop.
You	your	Is that your idea?
He	his	That’s his project.
She	her	I love her dress.
It	its	Look at its tail.
We	our	This is our home.
They	their	That’s their car.

Practice exercises