A possessive pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in order to show possession of that noun. In English, the singular pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, and its. English plural pronouns are ours, yours, and theirs. As we’ve seen with other pronouns, possessive pronouns can help eliminate unnecessary repetition:

• “Whose shirt is this?” “It’s mine.”
• We should either take Stella’s car or John’s. Let’s take his.

Note that in English, possessive pronouns are used to refer to the one who possesses the item, and not the object that is being possessed. This is different from other languages, such as Spanish and German, in which the possessive pronoun agrees in number and gender with the thing being possessed.