Possessive Adjectives: The Full List and How to Use Them

A possessive adjective tells you who something belongs to, and it always sits in front of a noun. English has seven: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Person	Singular	Plural
First	my	our
Second	your	your
Third	his, her, its	their

They never change for the thing owned. My car, my cars, my enormous unpaid parking fines – the adjective stays my whether what follows is singular or plural. This is worth stating because many languages do the opposite, and learners coming from Spanish, French, or Italian often try to make the possessive agree with the noun.

What they agree with instead

An English possessive adjective agrees with the owner, not the thing owned. Marie parked her car uses her because Marie is female – not because car has any gender. In Spanish the same sentence uses su coche regardless of Marie’s gender, which is exactly why this trips people in both directions.

The practical consequence: to choose between his, her, and its, look backwards to the owner, never forwards to the noun.

Possessive adjective or possessive pronoun?

The two sets look related and are easy to confuse, but their jobs differ. A possessive adjective comes before a noun. A possessive pronoun replaces the whole noun phrase and stands alone.

Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun	Example
my	mine	That is my seat. That seat is mine.
your	yours	Your turn came early. The early turn was yours.
his	his	His reply arrived. The reply was his.
her	hers	Her notes are clearer. The clearer notes are hers.
our	ours	Our table is ready. The ready table is ours.
their	theirs	Their offer stands. The offer that stands is theirs.

His is the only form that serves as both, which is why it never causes trouble. Its has no pronoun partner at all – there is no such word as its’, and it’s is something else entirely.

The two mistakes worth memorising

Its vs it’s. Its is the possessive adjective. It’s is a contraction of it is or it has. The apostrophe signals a missing letter, not ownership – which feels backwards, because every other possessive in English uses one.

Correct: The company changed its policy.
Correct: It’s a shorter policy now.
Test: read the sentence with it is. If it survives, you need it’s.

Whose vs who’s. Same pattern. Whose is the possessive adjective; who’s means who is or who has. Whose coat is this? asks about ownership. Who’s coming? asks about a person.

Their, there, they’re

Only one of these is a possessive adjective. Their shows ownership – their address. There points to a place or opens a sentence – there it is. They’re contracts they are. The confusion is phonetic rather than grammatical: all three sound identical in most accents, so proofreading by ear will never catch them.

Their is also the standard choice for a singular person of unknown or unstated gender – every applicant should bring their passport. This usage is centuries old, appears in Chaucer and Austen, and is accepted by current style guides.

Common errors at a glance

Wrong	Right	Why
The dog wagged it’s tail.	The dog wagged its tail.	possession, no apostrophe
Your late again.	You’re late again.	needs the contraction of you are
Their going to call.	They’re going to call.	contraction, not possession
This book is my.	This book is mine.	standing alone needs the pronoun
Marie took his coat (Marie’s own)	Marie took her coat.	agrees with the owner

Possessive adjectives are a closed set of seven words that never change form. Learn the list, learn the two apostrophe traps, and there is very little left to get wrong.