6 Possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns 6.1 We use a possessive adjective before a noun to say who the subject or object identified by the noun belongs to. Is this your pen? I found it on the floor. Yes, thanks. All the possessive adjectives are shown in the table below: 1st person 2nd person 3rd person Subject pronoun Possessive adjective singular I my plural we our singular you your plural you your singular he his she it her its plural they their Note Do not confuse its (possessive adjective) and it s (short form of it is). It s still early. Let s go back to sleep. (It s = It is) The cat is playing with its tail. (The tail belongs to the cat.) 6.2 Look at this conversation. This is my steak! I saw it first! No, it s mine! I saw it first! 39
The word mine in the conversation above is a possessive pronoun. You can find all the possessive pronouns and their corresponding possessive adjectives and subject pronouns in the table below: 1st person 2nd person Subject pronoun Possessive adjective Possessive pronoun singular I my mine plural we our ours singular you your yours plural you your yours he his his Note The word its cannot be used as a possessive pronoun. 3rd person singular she her hers it its / plural they their theirs We use a possessive pronoun to replace a possessive adjective and the noun that follows. Compare: This isn t my phone. This phone isn t mine. (mine = my phone) His can be a possessive adjective or a possessive pronoun. Compare: These are his jeans. These jeans are his. We can also use possessive pronouns in the structure a, some, many, etc. + noun+ of + possessive pronoun. A friend of mine gave me this book. (A friend of mine = One of my friends) My sister and I are big fans of yours. 6.3 We also use s or of after a noun to show possession. We usually use: possessive nouns for people, animals, countries and organizations Is he Miss Wong s husband? Don t eat it. It s the dog s snack! of for other things The centre of the Earth is incredibly hot. Sometimes, either of the structures is possible: 40 the film s director the director of the film
Possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns 6 To form possessive nouns, we: add s after a singular noun add an apostrophe ( ) after a plural noun ending in -s add s after a plural noun not ending in -s the dog s tail Mrs Chan s handbag my parents birthdays his friends names the children s toys women s clothes We can use a possessive pronoun without a noun after it when it is clear from the context what the noun is. We stayed at our uncle s last Christmas. (our uncle s = our uncle s place) Is this your bag? We can also talk about shops in this way. No, it is my mother s. My mother is going to the hairdresser s before the party. (the hairdresser s = the hairdresser s salon) Note 1 After a plural noun ending in s we use without s. Do you know all your friends birthdays? If the plural noun doesn t end in -s/-es, we use s. The children s bedroom is next to the bathroom. However, if a singular noun ends in s, we use s. Are these Charles s glasses? We can use s after more than one noun. John and Jane s wedding is next month. John s and his brother s weddings are in April and August respectively. Mr and Mrs Lee s dog is cute. Mr Lee s and Mr Wong s dog are both cute. 2 We can use a possessive pronoun in some expressions of time. Today s weather is good. 6.4 We can use whose to ask who something belongs to. A: Whose dictionary is this? B: It s Derek s. 41
A Complete the sentences using suitable possessive adjectives. 1 Time s up. Put down your pens, the teacher told the students. 2 Janet and Chris moved into their new home last month. 3 Mr Lau only gave us an hour to finish our writing task. 4 Jessica is a funny girl. Her jokes always make me laugh. B 5 Jason, are these your keys? Oh yes, thanks! I was looking for them. 6 The policemen stopped us and asked to see our ID cards. 7 I like this film, especially its leading actor. His performance is excellent. Fill in the blanks using possessive pronouns. 1 Is this Erica s car? No, hers is grey. 2 Do you live near Karen? Yes, my house is opposite hers. 3 What are you going to do this weekend? A cousin of mine is visiting Hong Kong. I m going to take her to Disneyland. 4 Do you and Bosco have the same pair of jeans? Yes, but he bought his at a different shop. 5 This writer is very famous. Do you know her? Yes, I ve read many books of hers. 6 There are so many bags here. Which one is yours/his/hers? The one in the middle is mine/his/hers. 7 Their school uniform looks smarter than ours/yours. Yes, but I think is more expensive. theirs 42
Possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns 6 C Look at the following pictures and complete the answers to the questions. The things shown in the pictures belong to the people in brackets. The first one has been done for you as an example. 1 (Mr Lau) A: Whose car is this? B: It s Mr Lau s. 2 (Paul) A: What is it? Is it yours? 3 B: It s. It s actually a bluetooth headset which can also be used as a stand-alone music player. (Janet) A: There s a lunch box on the table. Whose is it? B: I think it s. 4 (Mrs Chan s children) A: There are some toys on the floor. Whose are they? B: I m sure they are. They were here just now. Paul s Janet s Mrs Chan s children s 5 (Ted s classmate) A: Whose bicycle are you repairing, Ted? My classmate s B:. He asked me to fix it because he couldn t do it himself. 6 (Nancy s friends) A: I didn t know Nancy had so many CDs. her friends B: She doesn t. Some of these CDs are. 43
D Complete the descriptions of these pictures using the words provided. The first one has been done for you as an example. 1 sleeves/shirt The sleeves of this shirt are dirty. 2 surface/earth Water covers most of the Earth s surface/the surface of the Earth. 3 engine/car The mechanic is checking the car s engine/the engine of the car. 4 roofs/houses Many of the houses roofs/the roofs of the houses were damaged in the storm. 5 bottom/page She wrote the telephone number at the bottom of the page. 6 name/street The street s name/the name of the street and English. is written in both Chinese 7 front/house There is a beautiful garden at the front of the house. 8 windows/room The windows of the room/the room s windows They need cleaning. are dirty. 44
Possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns 6 E Complete these sentences using suitable subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns. 1 I met Jason and his brother yesterday. They were running around the sports ground. 2 Anna was your brother s classmate. Do you remember her? 3 There are some towels on the floor. Who dropped them there? 4 We have received our tickets. Have you got yours? 5 He found a lot of shells on the beach. Many of them are beautiful. 6 The girl group is going to hold a concert. Many fans of theirs are very happy about this. 7 Is this your wallet? No, it s Jim s. Mine is in my bag. 8 Let s take a picture of this cute rabbit. It s sleeping on its back. 9 This is Joy s book. I saw her put it on the desk. 10 Tom and Jerry didn t have lunch together today. Did they argue with each other? 11 Jason brought his own racket, but Tom forgot to bring his. 12 A classmate of yours called just now, but he didn t leave name, Mrs Wong said to her daughter. his 13 Let me introduce you. This is Fred, a friend of mine. This is Jane, my sister. 14 We know their telephone number, but they don t know ours. 15 Those are my brother s comic books. He bought one of during his trip to Japan. them 45
F Complete the conversation using suitable possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns. Joey Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Collector s Club meeting. I have some announcements to make. Ted is looking for one of his (1) figurines. He brought it to show everyone at the talk-and-share session last week. If you see it, please let him know. Also, Karen is very upset. Has anyone seen her (2) antique envelopes? Please don t keep them if you happen to get hold of them, as they are very important to her. Karen Yes. These envelopes were handed down to me by (3) my great grandfather! I can t afford to lose them. Joey Speaking of missing things, some notebooks are missing from our meeting room. If you see a red label on the cover of a notebook, then it is probably (4) ours. By the way, thank you for passing this brooch to me, Peter. Liz, I think it looks like one of (5) your collection of beaded brooches. Liz Let me see oh, it s definitely (6) mine. I thought I d lost it! Thanks for finding it. Joey In other news, I think everyone should go and see the Arts and Crafts Club exhibition. (7) Their paper sculptures are amazing, especially the flying dragon. (8) Its wings are made out of old magazine pages! I also saw some lovely handmade pop-up books. They are (9) yours, aren t they, Henry? Henry Yes, they are. The Arts and Crafts Club is always at (10) its busiest when there is an exhibition. We are very proud of (11) our exhibits. Joey Does anyone have anything to add? Larry I do. An aunt of (12) mine showed me (13) her collection of photos last weekend. They re all photos of old Hong Kong, which are very interesting when you compare them with how (14) our city looks like today. I think collecting this kind of photo is an interest which we should add to the list of club activities. Frances That sounds cool, but aren t these photos expensive and hard to get? Larry Well, you don t always need to get real photos. There are many shops selling postcards of old Hong Kong. My brother has an album full of such postcards. I ll bring some of (15) his to show you next week if he lets me. 46
Possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns 6 G Circle the correct words to complete the following conversation. Sean Are we going the right way? According to (1) ( his / your / her ) map, Claire, we should be at the museum by now. Claire Come on! None of (2) ( we / our / us ) is good at reading maps, and all of (3) ( our / ours / we ) mobile phones are offline. Rita It certainly isn t the best day for (4) ( us / our / we ), is it? But I think it s the right way. Look, the map shows that there s an antique shop across the street, and you can see (5) ( your / it / its ) sign over there. The museum should be just minutes walk away. Claire Sean Rita Sean Claire (6) ( Our / We / Us ) need to trust (7) ( our / ours / us ) map reading abilities! I suppose (8) ( yours / you / we ) are right. But can t we find somewhere to get a cold drink first? It s so hot here, and I m getting a bit tired. Why not? We could all use some refreshments. Let s go to the café near the plaza. Wait, Sean! You ve dropped (9) ( his / our / your ) wallet. What? It is not (10) ( me / mine / yours ). Is it (11) ( hers / ours / yours ), Claire? No, it isn t. Someone else has dropped it. Let (12) ( I / me / my ) look inside well, there is a student card of a girl who lives and studies in this city. This wallet must be (13) ( her / hers / she ). Sean She s probably looking for (14) ( his / her / hers ) wallet right now. What should (15) ( our / we / us ) do? Rita I think the best thing to do is to hand (16) ( it / its / them ) to the police. Claire Sure, but is there a police station around here? It s not like we know (17) ( our / your / their ) way around. Rita Let s try to find one on that map of (18) ( my / you / yours ), Claire. Sean Or we could ask some local people. They must know how to get to a police station. It s (19) ( they / their / theirs ) city, after all. 47
USING THE LANGUAGE We often use possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns when talking about what people own in, for example, an article or a personal profile. We can use them to identify possessions, belongings and collections of different people. Look at the examples below. Note the use of possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in bold. Article (excerpt) The winning dish in the cookery competition was Tommy s dandan noodles. His noodles won the judges hearts with their extra dose of spice. The next best dish was Amanda s. Her dish was a noodle dish as well, but hers were served cold in sesame sauce. Personal profile (excerpt) Lizzie s collection of sea shells is very impressive. Her favourite shell s colour is bright orange. The shells number keeps growing, and their value is very high at least in Lizzie s opinion. Other people s collections may be worth more money, but Lizzie is still very proud of hers. Your teacher asks you to write an article about the winners of a Christmas card competition and their design to practise using possessive nouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns. Begin with the given words. Do not write more than 100 words. Creativity for Christmas This year more than thirty students entered our Christmas card competition and the judges marvelled at their creativity. After much debate, the first prize went to Timothy Koo (Class 5D). His card features a boy in our school uniform flying with a snowman in the sky. His colourful drawing reminded the judges of their childhood fantasies. Fanny Wong (Class 4C) s pop-up snowflake card won the second prize. Its simple yet beautiful design impressed the judges and won many of their votes. The third prize belongs to Carmen Ng (Class 2B). Her fingerprint baubles are full of festive joy. All the winners cards will be available for sale soon. (accept any reasonable answer) 48