Forming possessive pronouns
Simple guideline to possessive pronouns:
- Do not use 's with possessive pronouns
- Used alone: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, whose
- Modify noun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
The possessive forms of personal pronouns and of the related pronoun who do not require an apostrophe. These pronouns have their own possessive forms.
Pronoun / possessive pronoun
I / my, mine
you / your, yours
he / his
she / her, hers
it / its
we / our, ours
they / their, theirs
who / whose
Do not confuse personal possessive pronouns with contractions that are pronounced the same way.
The idea was hers.
Give the book its due.
Some indefinite pronouns have regular possessive forms.
one's choice
one another's help
no one's responsibility
someone else's problem
anybody's guess
someone's opinion
When one of the nouns takes a possessive pronoun, the other nouns take the possessive as well.
I presented the intern's and my workups.
It was the patient's and my intent to proceed.
His recommendations were congruent with the chief of surgery's.
