Possessive Determiners

You're halfway through a worksheet and the sentence reads: "___ dog chased ___ ball across the playground." You know exactly whose dog and whose ball — but which word goes in the gap? My? Mine? Her's? Hers? Her? And why does the answer feel obvious when you say it out loud, but wobbly the moment you write it down?

You've been using these words correctly since you were about two — "my teddy," "her turn." Nobody sat you down with a chart. What trips people up isn't the words; it's writing them down under pressure, or working out what to do when a sentence gets a bit more complicated. This article deals with one small family — my, your, his, her, its, our, their — called possessive determiners. Nobody's born knowing which is which. By the end of this one, you will.

What they are

A determiner is a small word that sits in front of a noun and tells you something about it — the cat, a biscuit, this homework. Possessive determiners do the same job, but the information they give is whose. There are seven, and you already know all seven:

• my — my school bag
• your — is that your pencil?
• his — his trainers are muddy
• her — her essay was three pages long
• its — the hamster nudged its water bottle
• our — our classroom smells of paint
• their — their team won the quiz

Notice the pattern: every one is followed by a noun. A possessive determiner never stands alone — you can't say "This bag is my" and stop. It needs a noun ("This bag is my bag"), or you switch to a different word: "This bag is mine." That word mine is doing a different job — a possessive pronoun, coming up shortly.

One more thing: none of these seven ever takes an apostrophe. Write its paws, not it's paws, when you mean "belonging to it." (It's, with the apostrophe, means it is or it has.)

Word order, and one determiner per noun

A possessive determiner always comes first, before any adjectives, with everything lined up behind it:

possessive determiner → (numbers) → adjectives → noun their → two → noisy little → dogs

So it's "my scruffy old rucksack," not "scruffy my old rucksack." Flip the order and you'll hear it's wrong.

Here's the rule that trips people up most: you cannot combine a possessive determiner with another determiner in front of the same noun. English allows one determiner in that front slot. So "the my book" is always wrong, and so is "this her bag." You have to choose:

• ❌ the my book → ✅ my book or ✅ the book
• ❌ this her bag → ✅ her bag or ✅ this bag

There's a small emphasis word, own, that slots in right after a possessive determiner: "I've got my own room now." Own never appears by itself — it always leans on a possessive determiner in front of it.

Determiner vs pronoun

My, your, his, her, its, our, their sit before a noun. Their cousins — mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs — replace the noun entirely and stand alone:

That's my bag. → That bag is mine. Is this your homework? → Is this homework yours?

These stand-alone words are possessive pronouns, and they get their own full lesson, including how its differs from the sneaky it's. Determiners (my) sit before a noun; pronouns (mine) stand in for one.

Watch out: don't write "her's," "our's," or "their's" with an apostrophe, because it feels like a possessive noun ("the dog's bone"). None of the possessive pronouns ever take an apostrophe — it's hers, ours, theirs, no exceptions.

Their / there / they're — and its / it's

Two quick sorting jobs, because exams love these:

• their = possessive determiner → "their bags"
• there = a place → "over there"
• they're = "they are" → "they're coming"

Only their can sit in front of a noun. And:

• its = possessive determiner → "its fur"
• it's = "it is" or "it has" → "it's raining"

Only its can sit in front of a noun.

A few interesting wrinkles

Singular "their." You've probably written "Somebody left their jumper in the changing room" without a second thought — and you were right. Using their when you don't know, or don't need to specify, someone's gender is standard, accepted English, and writers have done it for centuries. In very formal writing, some older-fashioned markers still expect "his or her." Both are correct.

People vs things. The rough guide is his/her/their for people, its for animals and things — but real life is messier. Pets often get human pronouns ("The dog wagged his tail"), and organisations sometimes take its even though they're made of people ("The company raised its prices"). Neither is a mistake.

Two ways to show ownership. There's the possessive determiner ("my teacher") and the possessive noun with an apostrophe ("the teacher's car"). You can even combine them: "my friend's bike" is my + friend's + bike.

Quick check

1. Fill the gap: "___ old bike has a flat tyre." (Belonging to him.)

2. Spot and fix: "This is the my seat."

3. Choose: "The cat licked ___ / it's paw."

4. True or false: hers should be written with an apostrophe, like "her's."

5. Rewrite using a possessive determiner: "Priya picked up Priya's coat."

Where next

• What Are Determiners? — the determiner slot across articles, demonstratives, and possessives
• Possessive Pronouns vs Determiners — the canonical fix for its/it's and whose/who's
• Possessive Nouns and Apostrophes — the dog's bone, the girls' coats