What Possessives Are
English has two ways of saying who something belongs to, and both put the owner first: a possessive adjective — my, your, his, her, its, our, their — standing in front of the noun, or the owner's own name with 's stuck on the end.
POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVEmy, your, his, her…
The possessive comes before the noun: my, then bike.
This is my bike.
One word carries the ownership, and it comes before the thing owned.
POSSESSIVE 'Sa name or a noun
The apostrophe attaches to Nam, the owner — not to bike, the thing owned.
This is Nam's bike.
The owner is named, and the mark that says so is attached to him.
There is a third way — the bike of Nam — but nobody talks about a person like that. Keep of for parts of things: the door of the car, the end of the film.
TRY IT
- Question 1
"This is bike."
- Question 2
"That is bike."
The forms
POSSESSIVE + NOUN
my / your / his …noun
my book · her clinic · their school
A noun always follows, no article joins it — my house, never the my house — and the possessive never takes an -s of its own: my book, my books.
OWNER + 'S
owner'sthing
Nam's book · my sister's car · today's lesson
The owner moves to the front, and once the 's is there the noun needs no article of its own.
ASKING
Whosenounis / are?
Whose bag is this? · Whose shoes are those?
The question word for an owner, standing directly in front of the noun.
WHERE THE APOSTROPHE GOES
- the boythe boy's bike
- the girlsthe girls' room
- the childrenthe children's toys
singular → 's · plural already ending in -s → apostrophe only · irregular plural (children, men, women, people) → 's
Because children, men, women and people never end in -s, they can never take the bare apostrophe: children's, never childrens'.
I → my · you → your · he → his · she → her · it → its · we → our · they → their. One form of your covers one listener and many. And note the middle one: its is the only possessive in the language written with no apostrophe at all.
TRY IT
- Question 1
"My parents love new house."
- Question 2
"Both my parents live in house in Huế."
- Question 3
" bag is this?"
When to use it
Things somebody owns
This is my phone.
The everyday case, and the one that never needs an article beside it.
Signal words: my · your · his · her · its · our · their
People and relationships
Lan and her brother are at home.
The possessive follows the owner. Lan is female, so her — whatever the brother is.
Signal words: her brother · his sister · their parents
A named owner
Nam's bike is new.
With people and animals the 's version wins almost every time.
Signal words: Nam's · my sister's · the dog's · today's
Answering Whose…?
Whose bag is this? — It's Mai's.
Once Mai's has been said the noun can be dropped; repeating bag adds nothing.
Signal words: It's Mai's. · They're my brother's.
Whose asks about an owner: Whose phone is ringing? Who's is short for who is or who has: Who's calling? The two are pronounced identically, and only one of them has anything to do with owning.
She vs. her
Every person in English comes with two words: one for doing things, one for owning them.
| SHE — subject pronoun | HER — possessive adjective | |
|---|---|---|
| Its job | Does the verb | Owns the noun |
| What follows it | A verb: She reads every evening. | A noun: Her books are everywhere. |
| Example | She is my friend. | Her name is Hoa. |
| Never say | She name is Hoa. | Her is my friend. |
| The test | Next word a verb → subject pronoun | Next word a noun → possessive |
The same split runs through the whole set — I/my, you/your, he/his, we/our, they/their — and She books and Her reads are impossible for one and the same reason. One more thing a possessive adjective cannot do is stand alone: This is my is unfinished. To say it without a noun English switches to mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, which is a lesson of its own. Only his belongs to both sets: his car, and the car is his.
TRY IT
- Question 1
"She is my friend. name is Hoa."
- Question 2
"Lan is talking to brother."
Common mistakes
read the sentence with it is in place of it's. If it survives, keep the apostrophe — It's raining. If it collapses, you wanted its — The dog hurt its leg. The same trick separates your from you're and their from they're: every one of those apostrophes hides a missing verb, not an owner.
An apostrophe + s has three different jobs, and the word after it says which: my brother's car is possession, my brother's a doctor is my brother is, and my brother's gone home is my brother has. A plain plural, meanwhile, takes no apostrophe at all — two cars, open on Sundays; writing two car's claims the cars own something and never says what.
Incorrect:She is my friend. She name is Hoa.
Correct:She is my friend. Her name is Hoa.
A noun follows, so the possessive is needed; a subject pronoun has to be followed by a verb.
Incorrect:This is my sister car.
Correct:This is my sister's car.
Without the apostrophe and the -s, nothing in the phrase says that the car belongs to her.
Incorrect:My parents's house is in Huế.
Correct:My parents' house is in Huế.
A plural that already ends in -s adds the apostrophe only — never a second s.
Incorrect:Lan and his brother are at home.
Correct:Lan and her brother are at home.
The possessive follows the owner, and Lan is female; what she owns does not matter.
Incorrect:The cat licked it's paw.
Correct:The cat licked its paw.
It's means it is. The possessive of it has no apostrophe.
Incorrect:This is the my bag.
Correct:This is my bag.
My already does the work of the, and a noun takes only one determiner.
Incorrect:Our teacher wants ours books.
Correct:Our teacher wants our books.
Our does not take an -s for a plural noun; ours is the form that stands alone.
Incorrect:Your late again.
Correct:You're late again.
The opposite slip: here the sentence needs you are, so it takes the apostrophe.
Incorrect:Who's dictionary is this?
Correct:Whose dictionary is this?
Who's means who is. The question about an owner is whose.
Incorrect:I have two brother's.
Correct:I have two brothers.
This is a plural, not a possessive; a plain -s is all it needs.
Incorrect:The school is proud of it's students.
Correct:The school is proud of its students.
A school is it, and the possessive of it never carries an apostrophe.
Quick check · 6 questions
Choose the right word:
This is my book.
- A. my — Correct
- B. I
- C. me
Answer: A. my
I does the acting and me receives it; in front of a noun the form is my. The quickest test is to look at the next word.
Choose the right word:
My mother is a nurse. Her hospital is in Huế.
- A. Her — Correct
- B. She
- C. Hers
Answer: A. Her
She would need a verb after it. Hers stands alone with no noun at all. Only her can sit in front of a noun like this.
Choose the right word:
Nam loves his mother.
- A. his — Correct
- B. her
- C. he
Answer: A. his
The owner is Nam, so the word is his. The mother's own gender has no say in it, which is the opposite of how several other languages work.
Choose the correct spelling:
That is Lan's bag.
- A. Lan's — Correct
- B. Lan
- C. of Lan
Answer: A. Lan's
English puts the owner first and hangs the 's on the owner, not on the thing owned. "The bag of Lan" is grammatical but almost nobody talks about people that way.
Which sentence is correct?
This is my bag.
- A. This is the my bag.
- B. This is my bag. — Correct
- C. This is my the bag.
Answer: B. This is my bag.
A noun takes one determiner. Once my is there, the has nothing left to do.
Choose the question word:
Whose phone is this?
- A. Whose — Correct
- B. Who
- C. What
Answer: A. Whose
Who asks which person did something; whose asks which person owns something.
