Possessive Adjectives

We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive adjectives are:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• whose (interrogative)

Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them with pronouns.

number	person	gender	possessive adjective	example sentence
singular	1st	male/ female	my	This is mybook.
	2nd	male/ female	your	I like your hair.
	3rd	male	his	His name is "John".
		female	her	Her name is "Mary".
		neuter	its	The dog is licking its paw.
plural	1st	male/ female	our	We have soldour house.
	2nd	male/ female	your	Your children are lovely.
	3rd	male/ female/ neuter	their	The students thanked theirteacher.
singular/plural	1st/ 2nd/ 3rd	male/ female (not neuter)	whose	Whose phone did you use?

Compare:your = possessive adjective
you're = you are
its = possessive adjective
it's = it is OR it has
their = possessive adjective
they're = they are
there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside)
whose = possessive adjective
who's = who is OR who has

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective "its". We use an apostrophe to write the short form of "it is" or "it has". For example:
it's raining = it is raining
it's finished = it has finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.