Possessive pronouns in English. I like such books

In English and if you want to test your knowledge in action, then welcome to this page. Do exercises on different types of English pronouns, or all of them, and then test yourself with the answers at the end.

Who loves grammar laid out neatly and with a lot of interesting practical tasks? If you are among them, then an online course from Lingualeo « Grammar for Beginners» for you.

In all tasks, you must choose one correct answer from two or three proposed in brackets. The exercises are suitable for children in grades 5-7 and anyone learning English at various stages.

Exercises:

Personal pronouns (I, he, them, you...)

(He, she, it) is a flower.
My granny lives in a country. I go to (her, she, them) on holidays.
My parents are doctors. (He, they, them) work in a hospital.
(She, I, he) love my mom.
I have a brother. Sometimes I ask (her, he, him) to help me.
(Them, they, it) are going to school at the moment.
(He, she, you) study very well.

Possessive pronouns ( ours, yours, yours, mine...)

My dad has a car. (Her, he, his) car is red.
(Their, them, they) house is quite big.
I have a boat. The boat is (my, mine, their).
I like (your, him, it) answer more than (me, its, theirs).
(My, mine, your) dog wails (his, her, its) tail when I come from school.
We live in a small town. (Our, his, ours) town is very nice.
She wears (their, her, his) dress to school every day.

Demonstrative pronouns (this, those, these...)

(That, this) is our house and (that, this) is theirs.
(This, these) are books.
(This, these) is a red ball and (this, that) is a yellow ball.
(That, these) is a cat and (those, this) are mice.
I like (this, these) flowers!
(That, those) pictures are very beautiful.
They live in (these, this) country.

Reflexive pronouns (himself, yourself, yourself...)

I do my homework all by (himself, myself, myself).
They plan their vacation (ourselves, myself, themselves).
We are going to the sea (themselves, himself, ourselves).
My dad built this house (himself, herself, ourselves).
This dog found (herself, himself, itself) a place under the bench.
Yesterday she had a birthday. She bought (herself, itself, ourselves) earrings as a present.
You should plan your life (yourself, yourself, yourselves).

Mix (all mixed together)

(He, I, me) have got a friend. (Her, his, him) name is Pete.
(We, he, I) love traveling to different countries (himself, ourselves, itself).
(They, he, it) go to school. (Him, her, their) school is near (me, mine, myself).
(These, this) is a box. (It, she, he) is (ourselves, mine, her) present.
Where did (you, his, it) buy (that, this, those) shoes?
(It, this, these) ball is (he, his, myself) and (they, these, this) are (theirs, her, its).
(This, he, these) is (him, ours, our) house. (He, we, they) built (him, her, it) (them, ourselves, their)

I hope you have completed the tasks and can now say: "I did it!"

You might also want to go over the topic of pronouns in English. Check yourself again!

Personal pronouns

It is a flower.
My granny lives in a country. I go to her on holidays.
My parents are doctors. They work in a hospital.
I love my mom.
I have a brother. Sometimes I ask him to help me.
They are going to school at the moment.
You study very well.

Possessive pronouns

My dad has a car. His car is red.
Their house is quite big.
I have a boat. The boat is mine.
I like your answer more than theirs.
My dog wails its tail when I come from school.
We live in a small town. Our town is very nice.
She wears her dress to school every day.

Demonstrative pronouns

This is our house and that is theirs.
These are books.
This is a red ball and that is a yellow ball.
That is a cat and those are mice.
I like these flowers!
Those pictures are very beautiful.
They live in this country.

Reflexive pronouns

I do my homework all by myself.
They plan their vacation themselves.
We are going to the sea ourselves.
My dad built this house himself.
This dog found itself a place under the bench.
Yesterday she had a birthday. She bought herself earrings as a present.
You should plan your life yourself.

I have got a friend. His name is Pete.
We love traveling to different countries ourselves.
They go to school. Their school is near mine.
This is a box. It is her present.
Where did you buy those shoes?
This ball is his and these are theirs.
This is our house. We built it ourselves.

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Task 1.1. Translate into English:

That book is not mine. 2. This book is mine. 3. This is my book, and that is his. 4. These are her pencils, and those are mine. 5. Take those pencils. 6. I love these pens, they are good. 7. Your pen is bad, take it

Task 1.2. Replace the highlighted words with personal pronouns:

Peter helped the pupils to translate the text.

Mother asked Mary to wash the plates. 3. My

book: om the library (there). 5. His cousins live

Task 1.3. Write sentences in plural:

This is my pen and that is your pencil.

j/A". . G.Urom ■ "And

This is our office and that is yours.

This is his desk and that is hers.

This is my book and that is theirs.

This is my letter and that is yours.

Is this is my book?

Is that your house? That house is mine.

Task 1.4. Choose the correct possessive pronouns:

Is this (your / yours) book?

It’s (their / theirs) door, not (our / ours).

They’re new pupils and I don’t know (their / theirs) names.

(My / Mine) flat is bigger than (her / hers), but (her / hers) is nicer.

That's not (my / mine) book. (My / Mine) is new.

They took (our / ours) books and we took (their / theirs).

Are these pencils (her / hers)?

Is this (your / yours) house or (their / theirs)?

Interrogative pronouns

These pronouns are used to construct interrogative sentences.

What (what, which, which, which, which)

What is it? What it is? What book is it? What kind of book is it?

Who is this man? Who is this man?

Whose pencil is it? Whose pencil is this?

Which (which)

Which of these books is yours? Which of these books is yours?

When

When does the lesson begin? When does the lesson start?

Sh h^t, jfef

Why (why, why)

Why did you come here? Why did you come here? How

How are you? How are you doing?

How dad (much) (how much)

The interrogative pronoun what refers to words denoting things, objects, phenomena.

The interrogative pronoun who refers to words denoting people.

However, please note:

Who is he? Who is he? (What's his name) Not Mr Johnson.

What is he? Who is he? (by professions) He is a broker.

The pronoun who has two cases:

nominative who

objective case whom (to whom, whom).

Who is here? Who is there?

WiiuujL do you see there? Who do you see there? Whom did you give my book? Who did you give mine to?

1.5. Translate into English:

Whose letter is it? - This is our letter.

whose computer is this? - It is her.

Who is this man? - This man is ours

customer.

What books are these? - These are good books.

Which of these books are ours? - They are all yours, imin? - He is a manager.

“And why today? - I meet

representatives of a foreign company.

Which of these pens is yours?

Why did you come early?

When do you go to work? Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used in a sentence to say that the object named by the subject of the sentence

(a) himself performs the action or,

(b) performs the action himself and experiences it on himself.

As a rule, they are translated by a verb with a particle -sya (-sya), which is attached to the verbs. For example:

They washed and They washed and got dressed,

themselves dressed.

Do it yourself. Do it yourself.

Don't cut yourself! Don't cut yourself!

Help yourself! Help yourself!

In English, reflexive pronouns are formed from personal pronouns:

I - myself we - ourselves

you - yourself you - yourselves

he - himself they - themselves

she - herself it - herself

The reflexive pronoun oneself is formed from the indefinite pronoun one + self.

Task 1.6. Use the correct reflexive pronoun:

1.1 shall ask him .... 2. They want to do it.... 3. She washed ... . 4.You will answer the letter... . 5.1 looked at ... in the mirror. 6. We shall tell her... . 7. They have done the task... . 8. She doesn’t like to speak about ... . 9. The story ... is very good, but not the translation. 10. Children, do it....EL

Any student who begins to learn English from scratch on their own or with a teacher will already learn in the first lesson how to answer the question “ What's your name?” (Russian. What is your name?).

Answering “ My name is...“ (Russian. My name is...), he doesn’t even think that he already knows two possessive pronouns: my(my, mine, mine. mine) and your(Russian: yours, yours, yours, yours), without which it is impossible to communicate in English.

We use the same possessive pronouns for everything, but do we own our lives or sisters or husbands in the same way we own our shoes? Do we own any of them at all?

We use possessive pronouns for everything, but do we really own our lives, sisters, or husbands in the same way we own our shoes? Do we own it all?

~ Samantha Harvey

They may cause some misunderstanding on the part of those who are just starting to learn English and are encountering Possessive pronouns for the first time.

In English grammar, two types of possessive pronouns peacefully coexist: Possessive Adjectives(possessive adjectives) and Possessive Pronouns(possessive pronouns). We will talk about them today in this article.

Possessive pronouns in English

Possessive pronouns help us understand that someone or something owns something. Signature on keychains: I am yours (Russian. I am yours), And you are mine (Russian. And you are mine)

Let's first remember what a possessive pronoun is.

Possessive pronouns(mine, yours, ours, and others) indicate the attribute of belonging to a certain person and answer the question whose? In Russian they agree with the noun in number, gender and case.

What about English possessive pronouns? There are two forms of possessive pronouns in English ( Possessive adjectives and Possessive pronouns), which vary in spelling and how they are used in a sentence.

Let's take a closer look at both forms of possessive pronouns in English.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive pronouns in English, reminiscent of an adjective in its role in a sentence, and which are always used with a noun, are called Possessive Adjectives(Russian possessive adjective).

Below is a table of the formation of possessive pronouns in English and their comparison with personal pronouns.

Possessive pronouns dependent form (Table 1)

Possessive pronouns dependent form (Table 2)

When we want to indicate ownership, we cannot use !

Offer He name was Carl(Russian. His name was Karl) sounds strange and incorrect in both English and Russian. He is a personal pronoun. Replace it with a suitable possessive adjective his and get a grammatically and logically correct sentence: His name was Car l (Russian. His name was Karl)

Sometimes this form of possessive pronouns or Possessive Adjectives called dependent, since it cannot be used independently, without a noun.

Remember!

Possessive pronouns-adjectives (Possessive Adjectives) in English they are used only in conjunction with a noun and always come before it.

Since dependent possessive pronouns resemble adjectives in their functionality, they also serve as a definition in a sentence.

Example sentences with possessive adjectives in English

Often, beginners learning English confuse possessive adjectives with abbreviated forms of the verb. to be:

your And you're (= you are)

its And it's (= it is)

Compare the use of possessive pronouns and the abbreviated form of the verb:

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in English that can be used in a sentence without a noun are called Possessive Pronouns(Russian possessive pronoun).

Possessive Pronouns also called absolute or independent form of possessive pronouns. In this form, nouns are never placed after possessive pronouns, since these pronouns are used instead of nouns.

Remember!

Absolute possessive pronouns ( Possessive Pronouns) in English are used without a noun and perform the function of the subject, object or nominal part of the predicate in a sentence.

Below is a table of the formation of absolute possessive pronouns in English and their comparison with personal pronouns.

Possessive pronouns in English absolute form (Table 1)

Possessive pronouns in English absolute form (Table 2)

English possessive pronouns in absolute form replace the possessive adjective ( Possessive Adjective) with a noun to avoid repetition of information, since everything is clear without it. For example:

This book is my book, not your book(Russian. This book is my book, not your book)

This book is mine, not yours(Russian. This book is mine, not yours)

As you noticed, in both Russian and English the second sentence sounds more natural. Let's look at how possessive pronouns are used in a sentence.

Examples of sentences with possessive pronouns in English

Sentence with possessive pronoun	Translation into Russian
What's mine is yours, my friend.	What's mine is yours, my friend.
I have broken my pencil. Please give me yours.	I broke my pencil. Please give me yours.
Are those gloves hers?	Those gloves are hers?
All the essays were good but his was the best.	All the essays were good, but his was the best.
The world is mine.	The world is mine.
Your photos are good. Ours are terrible.	Your photos are great, but ours are terrible.
These aren't John and Mary's children. Theirs have black hair.	These are not John and Mary's children. Theirs are black-haired.
John found his passport but Mary couldn't find hers.	John found his passport, but Mary could not find hers.
Is that chair yours?	Is this chair yours?
I know this drink is yours but I need to drink something.	I know this drink is yours, but I need something to drink.

Possessive pronoun its in absolute form it is used extremely rarely, only in conjunction with the word own:

The cottage seems asleep yet, but it may have a life of its own(Russian. It seemed that the cottage was still sleeping, but perhaps it lived its own life).

My or Mine? Possessive pronoun or adjective?

The poster has an inscription with a striking example of the use of possessive pronouns in the dependent and absolute forms: “Because my body is mine (belongs to me!)”

As already mentioned, we use possessive adjectives and pronouns, when we need to express ownership. Both forms are translated into Russian in the same way.

Possessive adjective ( Possessive Adjective) is always used followed by a noun:

This is my pen(Russian: This is my pen), where my– possessive adjective, pen – following noun.

Possessive pronouns ( Possessive Pronouns) are always used independently, without an accompanying word:

This pen is mine(Russian: This pen is mine), where mine– a possessive pronoun after which we DO NOT NEED a noun.

Comparison chart of possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

The semantic load does not change in these two sentences. However, when we need to emphasize someone or something, it is better to use the absolute form.

Translation of English possessive pronouns

There is no difference in the meaning of possessive adjectives and pronouns in English and their translation into Russian.

English possessive pronouns in dependent and absolute form are translated into Russian in the same way, but there are a few things you need to know about.

Translation of the possessive pronoun your into English

In English there is no special possessive pronoun corresponding to the Russian possessive pronoun ""svoy"".

Russian pronoun ""your"" translated into English appropriate possessive pronouns.

Examples of sentences in English with translation of the pronoun your

English possessive pronouns are usually not translated into Russian when they are combined with nouns denoting parts of the body or items of clothing, but are always present before the noun.

In Russian, possessive pronouns are usually not used with similar nouns. Compare English possessive sentences with translation:

Special cases of using possessive pronouns

Using the Of yours structure

Very often (especially in American English) you can hear the following construction: a friend/some friends of + mine, yours, etc:

I saw a friend of yours last night(Russian: I saw one of your friends last night) = I saw one of your friends last night.

Here are some friends of mine(Russian: Here are my friends) = Here are my friends.

Offers I saw one of your friends last night and I saw a friend of yours last night will be translated the same way: “Last night I saw one of your friends.” However, there is a slight semantic difference.

Let's look at phrases “my friend” And “a friend of mine”.

“My friend” will be said about a close friend. If you call a person “my friend”, it means you have a warm and trusting relationship with him. But, each of us has people with whom we just have good relationships. These are just our friends and acquaintances. This is exactly what we need here: “a friend of mine”.

The indefinite article itself indicates to us that “one of” friends, someone indefinite:

This is my friend Jessica.(“my friend” – before the name)

This is Jessica, a friend of mine.(“a friend of mine” – after the name)

With the phrase "a friend of mine" associated with one funny fact. In English-speaking culture there is a concept "urban myth"(BrE) or "urban legend"(AmE). This is a story, usually with an unexpected, humorous or instructive ending, which the narrator passes off as a real event.

We call these stories "tales" or "fiction". These incidents allegedly happen to a certain acquaintance of the narrator, and the name of the acquaintance is never specified.

Most of these stories (or “tales”) begin with the words: This happened to a friend of mine... (This happened to one of my friends...).

When to use Yours faithfully and Yours sincerely

You've probably already come across the phrases Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely at the end of an official letter, for example:

Yours sincerely, Mary Wilkinson(Russian: Sincerely yours, Mary Wilkinson).

In business correspondence, these are irreplaceable phrases that need to be written at the end of the letter. Read more about the features of business English.

Examples of using the phrases “Yours faithfully” and “Yours sincerely”

Using an English noun in the genitive case

Possessive nouns can be used as possessive pronouns to talk about belonging to someone in particular.

As a rule, the use of nouns in the possessive case does not affect the form of possessive pronouns, for example:

Whose cell phone is that? - It's John's.(Russian. Whose phone is this? - Jonah.)

Who do these computers belong to? - They "re our parents".(Russian: Who owns these computers? – Our parents.)

The relationship of belonging or involvement of one object to another can also be indicated using the possessive case ( The Possessive case). which we will talk about in our next article.

Possessive pronouns in English: video

To finally consolidate the knowledge you have acquired, we recommend that you watch a video about possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.

English Grammar Lessons - Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns

Finally:

In this article, we tried to explain as simply as possible the use of possessive pronouns in English and how to correctly answer the question “whose” in English.

We hope that after reading our article, you will no longer have any questions on this topic and you will be able to use this grammar correctly in your speech and writing.

Stay on our site and you will discover a lot from the world of English grammar!

Exercises on possessive pronouns

Now we invite you to test your knowledge of possessive pronouns in English by completing the following test.

Choose the correct option (insert either a possessive adjective or a possessive pronoun):

Jane has already eaten her lunch, but I"m saving hers/her/my/mine until later.

She has broken hers/her/his leg.

My mobile needs to be fixed, but mine/his/our/their is working.

You/Yours/Mine/My computer is a Mac, but you/your/yours/my is a PC.

We gave them ours/mine/our/yours telephone number, and they gave us their/theirs/ours/mine.

Mine/My/Yours/Your pencil is broken. Can I borrow you/yours/him/its?

Ours/Our/Your/My car is cheap, but you/your/yours/my is expensive.

You can"t have any chocolate! It"s all mine/my/our/yours!

In contact with

Possessive pronouns in English, these are pronouns indicating the identity of objects or persons. Possessive pronouns are divided into two types:

Possessive pronouns-adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their,
Possessive pronouns-nouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.

There are other names for these types, for example, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns; in English they are called possessive determiners and possessive pronuous.

Table: possessive pronouns-adjectives

Possessive pronouns-adjectives indicate that something belongs to a person. They belong to the so-called noun determiners - words that clarify the meaning.

Example sentences:

This is my house. - This is my home.

I know your name. - I know your (your) name.

That is his dog. - This is his dog.

What is her name? - What is her name? (lit.: what's her name?)

Our town is small. – Our city is small.

He is your teacher. - He is your teacher.

This is their choice. - This is their choice.

Features of possessive pronouns

Possessive adjective pronouns have several features.

1. In English, possessive pronouns are used more often than in Russian: ownership is indicated where in Russian it is only implied.

He looked at his watch. – He looked at his wristwatch.

I am walking my dog. - I'm walking the dog.

2. In English there is no analogue of the pronoun “your”; its role is played by one of the possessive pronouns-adjectives.

He knows his trade. - He knows yours craft.

I forgot my password. - I forgot mine password.

3. A possessive pronoun cannot be used with - either an article or a pronoun.

Maybe: 1) I walked my dog 2) I walked the\a dog.
Impossible: I walked the\a my dog.

4. Don’t confuse its and it’s

Its is the possessive pronoun “his” (in relation to an inanimate object or animal), and it’s is short for “it is”. This error, by the way, occurs among native speakers.

Table: possessive pronouns-nouns

Possessive noun pronouns replace a noun in a sentence indicating ownership, usually to avoid repetition.

For example:

– Is it your suitcase? - This is your suitcase.

– Yes, it’s my suitcase mine. - Yes, mine.

The pronoun “mine” replaces “my suitcase”.

All possessive pronouns-nouns are given in this table:

Difference between My and Mine, Your and Yours, etc.

The difference between the two types of possessive pronouns may not be understood due to the fact that in Russian my And mine translated the same way - “mine”. In fact, the functions of these pronouns are completely different.