Do you know what possessive adjectives are? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on possessive adjectives, including the definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 8, 2021
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What is a possessive adjective?
According to Grammar Monster, a possessive adjective comes before a noun or pronoun to show who or what owns it or possesses it. The possessive adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, their, and whose. You will notice in some cases that the gender of the owner is specified as female and male. If you do not know the owner’s gender or if they do not use gendered language, you can simply use “their”
Spanish also uses possessive adjectives. The Spanish possessive adjectives include the following from Collins English Dictionary.
- Mi
- Mis
- Tu
- Tus
- Su
- Sus
- Nuestro
- Nuestra
- Nuestros
- Nuestras
- Vuestro
- Vuestra
- Vuestros
- Vuestras
These are used almost like a verb conjugation, with different forms for the yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, nosotras, vosotros, vosotras, ellas, ellos and ustedes forms. You can think of these as a different way of phrasing mía, el mío, tuyo, tuya, de ella, suyo, de ellos, Sample sentences are below:
- ¿Dónde está tu hermana?
- Tiene los ojos verdes.
- Mis tíos están vendiendo su casa.
- Pablo ha perdido su bolígrafo.
- Pablo ha perdido sus bolígrafos.
- ¿Dónde están nuestros pasaportes?
- José ha perdido su cartera.
- ¿Por qué no traéis a vuestros hijos?
- No puedo mover las piernas.
Many different languages also contain words that mean possessive adjectives. You may notice that some of these translations of possessive adjectives look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of possessive adjectives is provided by Word Sense.
- Russian: притяжа́тельное прилага́тельное (neut.)
- Slovak: privlastňovacie prídavné meno (neut.)
- Japanese: 所有形容詞 (shoyū keiyōshi)
- Galician: adxectivo posesivo (masc.)
- Spanish: adjetivo posesivo (masc.)
- German: see adjektivisches Possessivpronomen
- Turkish: iyelik sıfatı
- Romanian: adjectiv posesiv (neut.)
- Irish: aidiacht shealbhach (fem.)
- Norman: adjectif possessif (masc.)
- French: adjectif possessif (masc.)
- Dutch: niet-zelfstandig bezittelijk voornaamwoord (neut.)
What are examples of possessive adjectives?
A possessive adjective can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! The following sentences are examples of possessive adjectives from Learn Grammar that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. These can come at the end of a sentence. Try to use the term possessive adjectives today or notice when someone else is using a possessive adjective.
- I walked for 4 hours and now I cannot feel my legs.
- Your cycle has been stolen yesterday.
- My computer is not working as fast as it worked in the beginning.
- My mind stops working when I think about that.
- Their favorite teacher did not come yesterday.
- I don’t want to see his shadow again.
- Our father told us not to quarrel with anyone.
- Will you mind opening my drawer and look into it?
- I will not be forced to be feminine in my own living room.
- She could not identify his motives.
- The article must be on my desk Monday morning.
- Stop messing with my hair.
- I could not understand her intentions.
- I am missing a ton of my possessions after the camping trip.
- Her thoughts are too complex.
- We are concerned about his performance.
- Your child is not doing well in the school.
- I cannot believe that you broke my glasses.
- The students of class seven submitted their assignment.
- She made her life miserable by pessimism.
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- causative
- finite
- progressive
- masculine
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- impersonal (impers.)
- objective
- nominative
- mass noun
- cataphoric
- part of speech
- parasynthetic
- main verb
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- construction
- transitive
- person
- noun phrase
- postmodify | postmodifier
- third-person
- singular
- apodosis and protasis
- possessive
- relative
- cognate object
- protasis
- intensifier
- first person
- case
- feminine
- reflexive
- quasi-
- antecedent
- indirect speech
- anaphoric
- gender
- superlative
- pro-form
- that-clause
- common noun
- direct object
- unmarked genitive
- count noun
- filler
- definite article
- adverbial | adverbially
- phrase (phr.)
- interrogative
- indirect object
- determiner
- agree | agreement
- interjection
- passive
- indicative
- possessive adjective
- non-finite
- collocation | collocate
- direct speech
- dual
- predicative
- active
- participle | past participle | present participle
- locative
- infinitive
- concrete
- abstract
- complement
- accusative
- non-referential
- adverb (adv.)
- morpheme
- subordinate clause
- participial adjective
- special use
- subjective
- simple
- anticipatory
- suffix
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- article
- complementary
- combination
- verb (v.)
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- personal pronoun
- positive
- prepositional passive
- prefix
- present participle
- optative
- adjective
- ellipsis | elliptical
- noun (n.)
- construed (const., constr.)
- genitive
- plural
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- vocative
- head
- agent noun
- double object
- to-infinitive
- imperative (imper.)
- mood
- main clause
- subjunctive
- subject
- compound | compounding
- stem
- object | direct object | indirect object
- number
- appositive
- dative
- past participle
- second person
- present tense
- direct question
- clause
- instrumental
- verbal noun
- indirect passive
- similative
- element
- collective noun
- declarative
- preposition (prep.)
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- perfect
- conditional
- phrasal verb
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- prepositional phrase
- absolute (absol.)
- intransitive
- tense
- comparative
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- prepositional object
- copular verb | copula
- indirect question
- passive infinitive
- past tense
- attributive
- conjunction (conj.)
- bare infinitive
- possessive pronouns | proper name
- pronoun (pron.)
- possessive pronoun
- zero
- combining form (comb. form)
- modify | modifier
- indefinite
- base form
- apposition
- premodify | premodifier
- demonstrative
- neuter
Overall, the short form and long forms of possessive adjectives show the possessor of a thing. These are used in a common way in English as well as different forms of possessive adjectives in languages like Spanish, French and German.
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