4. Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronoun is the possessive form of the personal pronoun, which we use in a sentence in place of a noun to express possession. A possessive pronoun can stand on its own as a subject or an object and is not followed by a noun.

Possessive pronouns
Singular	Plural
mine	ours
yours	yours
its	theirs
his	theirs
hers	theirs

� Possessive pronoun examples:

Examples:

This puppy is mine . That kitten is yours.
The kennel is its .
He claimed that the money on the floor was his .
The blonde hair on your shirt must be hers .
Your newborn baby is much bigger than ours .
I think the old grandmother who wandered into our house is theirs .

Possessive pronouns are used either as subject or object.

Examples:

Your (garden) has weeds all over. (Subject)
His (car) is black but hers (car) is white . (Subject)
Your dog has bitten mine (dog) on the stomach. (Object)
She likes theirs (parents) but dislikes ours (parents) . (Object)

An apostrophe is not used with a possessive pronoun that expresses ownership.

Examples:

This slice of pizza is yours .

( Not : This slice of pizza is your's .)
She told us not to touch it as it was hers.
(Not: She told us not to touch it as it was her's.)

Ours is the correct possessive pronoun, meaning "belonging to us," and should never have an apostrophe; ours's is incorrect, as possessive pronouns like ours, hers, and theirs don't need an apostrophe to show possession, unlike how it's means it is. Think of ours as standing alone, like "That car is ours," replacing "That car is our car".

Ours (Correct)

A possessive pronoun that stands alone, indicating something belongs to "us".

Example: "This house is ours".
Example: "That room isn't theirs; it's ours".

...replacing "That room is our room".

Our (Correct, but different)

A possessive adjective that comes before a noun.

Example: "They are our friends".
Example: "This is our car".

...replacing "this car is our car".

Our's (Incorrect)

This spelling is a common mistake, but it is never correct in standard English. People mistakenly add the apostrophe because most possessives use 's (like dog's), but possessive pronouns (like yours, his, hers, its) are exceptions.