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When Pronouns And Adjectives Are The Same - Education - Nairaland

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Demonstrative Adjectives / The Trouble With Adjectives And Adverbs (2) (3) (4)

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When Pronouns And Adjectives Are The Same by Benyinka(m): 8:54pm On Feb 16, 2016
Speakers often confuse possessive pronouns with possessive adjectives.

Possessive adjectives are my, your, our, their, his, her and its, while possessive pronouns are yours, mine, theirs, ours, hers, his and its. It may look difficult to understand because 'his' and 'its' appear in both, but it is simple despite that.

Remember pronouns replace nouns. Possessive adjectives however describes or modifies the noun. These examples will explain it.

1. The ball is yours. (pronoun)
2. It is your ball. (adjective)
3. The gift is mine. (pronoun)
4. My gift is on the table. (adjective)

A possessive adjective goes before a noun to show possession, but possessive pronoun goes after the noun and can replace it, unlike its adjective counterpart.

Look at the above examples rewritten as:

Yours is the ball. (pronoun)
Your ball it is. (adjective)

Note that after the rearrangement, the pronoun and adjective still maintain their positions (before noun and after noun respectively).

Also note that 'your' is different from 'yours' and 'my' is different from 'mine', which makes the distinction vivid.

However, the technicality lies in the use of 'its' and 'his' in both parts of speech.

Ex. 1. Its tail has been removed.(adjective)
2. His mother gave him a slap across the face. (adjective)
3. He broke his leg in the fight. (adjective)
4. John spoke with a friend of his. (pronoun)
5. The choice was his.(pronoun)
6. This room is usually cold, it has a peculiar temperature of its own.

Note:
In standard English, we avoid using 'its' as a pronoun except when we use it with 'own'.

'One's' is also used in this sense.
Ex. One shouldn't mind being on one's own.

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Re: When Pronouns And Adjectives Are The Same by babyfaceafrica: 9:25am On Feb 17, 2016
Hmm

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