Possessive Nouns and Possessive Adjectives By Kenneth Beare, About.com

Possessive Nouns and Possessive Adjectives

By Kenneth Beare, About.com

The formation of possessive nouns and possessive adjectives is sometimes confusing to students. The reason for this is that many languages commonly use 'of' for this construction.

Examples

The color of his shirt NOT shirt's color
The ball of his dog NOT his dog's ball

In everyday English, however, we generally use possessive nouns and possessive adjectives rather than this 'of' form.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used instead of possessive nouns when the reference is understood. For example:

Tom is a dog lover. He takes his dog Spike everywhere!

In this case, it is clear that 'his' refers to Tom because of the context. Possessive adjectives are always placed in front of the noun they modify. Here is a list of possessive adjectives:

I - my dog
You - your cat
He - his book
She - her car
It - its color (NOT it's!)
We - our dog
You - your house
They - their farm