Possessive PronounsversusContractionsMini-Lesson#90From theUWF Writing Labs101 GrammarMini-Lessons Series

Possessive PronounsWriters often mistake possessive pronouns for contractions. These are possessive pronouns: its, her, his, our, mine, their, whose and your. Remember, the possessive pronouns do not require apostrophes. Other common possessive personal pronouns include his, hers, yours, ours, theirs, and mine.

ContractionsThe following are contractions: its (it is and it has) theyre (they are), whos (who is), and youre (you are).Remember, a contraction is a shortened form of a word or words in which the omitted letters are replaced by an apostrophe.Also, remember that contractions are often too informal for some academic and professional writing.

PronunciationWords that have similar sounds are called homophones. Examples of homophones are the following: their, theyre, and there. Because these words sound similar, people often spell these words in their sentences incorrectly.

Incorrect: Their were no questions following the speakers address.Incorrect: Theyre were no questions following the speakers address.Correct: There were no questions following the speakers address.

Practice!This situation, difficult though it was, was theirs to make.theirsTheir were no questions following the speakers address.thereWhose leading the workshops today, and whose missing from the list of workshop speakers?

Whos / whos

More Practice!The house is mines, the car is yours, but the bank account is ours.

mine / yours / ours

That helmet is hers, but the bike is yours.hers / yours