My and mine

Possessive adjectives (my, your, etc) are used with a noun:

My name is John. What is your name?

I lost my keys in the bar.

Peter broke his arm when he fell off a tree.

Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, etc) are used when we do not want to repeat the same noun because it is clear what we are talking about. They can always be substituted by a possessive adjective + a noun:

My name is John. What is yours? [=What is your name?]

My father and I both have a Renault, but mine is bigger than his [=my Renault is bigger than his Renault].

Alice’s dog is not as tall as mine [as my dog].

BE CAREFUL: We normally add –s to the possessive adjective to make a possessive pronoun (her → hers; our → ours). This –s does not mean plural.

Study the following table.

Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns
my your his her its our your their	mine yours his hers - ours yours theirs

Practice 

Complete the sentences with the right possessive. Use mine / my (2) / yours /her.

Mary broke (a) __________ leg last week when she went skiing. I’ve never broken (b) __________, but I broke (c) ___________ arm once when I fell down the stairs.

(d) __________ cat is called “Pussy”. What is (e) __________ called?

Answer key:

Practice : (a) her; (b) mine; (c) my; (d) my; (e) yours