Question 1

What is the difference between my and mine?

Accepted Answer

"My" is a possessive adjective — it must come before a noun: "my car," "my idea," "my family." "Mine" is a possessive pronoun — it replaces the noun entirely: "The car is mine," "That idea was mine." You cannot say "mine car" or "this is my" on its own. This adjective/pronoun distinction works for every pair: your/yours, her/hers, our/ours, their/theirs. Think of the adjective as a describing word that needs a noun to describe, and the pronoun as a word that takes the place of the noun. This pattern is consistent across all possessive forms in English.

Question 2

Do possessive adjectives change for masculine or feminine?

Accepted Answer

In English, possessive adjectives only change for the third person singular: use "his" for males and "her" for females. All other forms stay the same regardless of gender: "my," "your," "our," and "their" work for everyone. This is much simpler than many other languages where possessive forms change to match the gender of the noun. In English, "his book" and "his bag" both use "his" — the possessive matches the owner, not the object. For the pronoun forms, "his" stays the same while "her" becomes "hers": "The book is his" but "The book is hers."

Question 3

Why does his work as both an adjective and a pronoun?

Accepted Answer

"His" is the only possessive form in English that does not change between adjective and pronoun use: "his car" (adjective) and "the car is his" (pronoun). Every other possessive pair has two different forms: my/mine, your/yours, her/hers, our/ours, their/theirs. There is no clear grammatical reason for this — it is simply a feature of how English developed over time. For learners, this means one fewer form to memorise. The word "its" also has no pronoun form in modern English — you would say "the book is its" very rarely. Instead, speakers rephrase: "The book belongs to it."

Possessive Adjectives vs Pronouns

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