KS3 English Language: Possessives

Possessives…

A possessive is a word that shows possession or ownership of something.

A possessive can be a noun, pronoun or adjective.

Nouns are usually made possessive by adding an apostrophe and an ‘s’.

For example, meet Rachel - a television news reporter. That is her microphone, or put another way, that is ‘Rachel’s’ microphone.

Adding an apostrophe ‘s’ to Rachel makes it a possessive noun and expresses that the microphone belongs to Rachel.

Possessives can also be pronouns such as ‘mine’, ‘yours’, ‘hers’ or ‘theirs’. Or adjectives such as ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘her’, or ‘our’.

For instance, Eileen takes candles out of ‘her pocket’ or Rachel uses ‘her’ hairspray.

‘Her’ is a possessive adjective. It describes the hairspray as possessed by her. If you said ‘The hairspray she uses is hers,’ then ‘hers’ would be a possessive pronoun because it stands in for a noun.

A possessive typically expresses possession, but not always. They can also express a relationship.

For example, this is Callum, Rachel’s camera operator. The apostrophe shows the relationship between Rachel and Callum.

Rachel’s suddenly very concerned camera operator.

So our top story again…

A possessive is a word that shows possession or ownership of something and can be a noun, pronoun or adjective.

That’s what I call an explosive story.