Possessives in English

Possessives in English

English For Engineers - Level 1

Possessives in English

There are some basic rules to express the possession in English... Let's learn them!

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Possessive with 's

• We add 's to singular nouns to show possession:

  We are having a party at John's house.

  Michael drove his friend's car.

• We add ' to plural nouns ending in -s:

  This is my parents' house.

  Those are ladies' shoes.

Examples:

1) Mark's dog is a Labrador retriever.

2) My sister's phone is lost.

3) Are we going to the Smith's house?

4) The girl's bookbags were left on the gym floor during class.

5) I was sorry to find out that Tom's cat died.

6) The bus driver's hat was crooked.

7) I am not sure that the men's restroom is on this hallway.

8) My mom's name is Leslie.

9) The football team's jerseys are red.

10) The flowers' petals are starting to open.

Possessive with 's

• But we use 's with irregular plural nouns:

  men/ women / children/ people/

• These are men's shoes.

  
  

• Children's clothes are very expensive.

Possessive with 's

• We can use a possessive instead of a full noun phrase to avoid repeating words:

• Is that John's car?

     No, it's Mary's. (NOT No, it's Mary's [car].)

• 
  

Fill in the Blank

1. That car belongs to my friend. = It's my _________ .

Fill in the Blank

That dog belongs to the family next door.

Fill in the Blank

Our cat always sleeps on that chair.

Possessive Adjectives

We use possessive adjectives:

to show something belongs to somebody:

Possessive Adjectives

• To show something belongs to somebody:

• That's our house.

  My car is very old.

• For relations and friends:

• My mother is a doctor.

  How old is your sister?

Possessive Adjective

• For parts of the body:

• He's broken his arm.

  She's washing her hair.

  I need to clean my teeth.

• 
  

• 
  

BE CAREFUL!

The possessive adjective its does not have an apostrophe ('):

That bird has broken its (NOT it's) wing.

(it's always means it is or it has.)

Possessive Examples:

My computer is not working as fast as it worked in the beginning.

Our father told us not to quarrel with anyone. Your cycle has been stolen yesterday.

Your child is not doing well in the school.

We are concerned about his performance.

The students of class seven submitted their assignment.

I could not understand her intentions. Her thoughts are too complex.

My mind stops working when I think about that.

More examples:

Stop messing with my hair.

I cannot believe that you broke my glasses.

I don’t want to see his shadow again.

She made her life miserable by pessimism.

Their favorite teacher did not come yesterday.

Will you mind opening my drawer and look into it?

I walked for 4 hours and now I cannot feel my legs.

She could not identify his motives.

'its' or 'it's'?

Let's check what we've learnt! :

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/possessives-adjectives

Created by Carolina Gómez Castro - 2020