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# possessive

«possessive» in Mova's school dictionary: **wanting to keep something or someone all to yourself and…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (possessive, more possessive, most possessive); noun (the possessive — grammar)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Possessive means wanting to keep something or someone all to yourself and not wanting to share. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#m1)

2) (grammar) Possessive words show that something belongs to someone, such as «my», «your», «his», «hers», «its», «our», «their», or a noun with an apostrophe and s, like «Sam's». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#m2)

3) (noun, grammar) The possessive is the form of a word that shows owning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In grammar lessons, pupils learn the possessive apostrophe: the dog's bone (one dog), the dogs' bones (many dogs), and possessive pronouns and determiners. In everyday life and stories, a possessive friend gets jealous if you play with others, and a possessive dog guards its toy. Common phrases: «possessive apostrophe», «possessive pronoun», «possessive determiner», «possessive of», «get possessive».

### examples

- The possessive apostrophe in «Mia's coat» shows the coat belongs to Mia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x1)
- «Mine», «yours» and «theirs» are possessive pronouns. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x2)
- My dog gets very possessive about his ball. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x3)
- She was possessive of her new felt-tip pens. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x4)
- Add an apostrophe to make the possessive: the children's toys. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x5)
- A possessive friend may not like you having other friends. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x6)
- «Its» is possessive, but «it's» means «it is». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/#x7)

### note

Grammar trap: «its» (possessive, no apostrophe) vs «it's» (it is). Possessive pronouns like «hers», «ours», «yours» never take an apostrophe. Plural nouns ending in s take the apostrophe after the s: the girls' changing room.

### In the corpora

- [My, your, his, her, our and their before a noun are called possessive determiners in school grammar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/27-word-classes-the-jobs-words-do/27/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «possessive» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/possessive/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.