The possessive adjectives and pronouns are:
Possessive adjectives Possessive pronouns
| singular plural | singular plural | |
| 1st person | my our | mine ours |
| 2nd person | your your | yours yours |
| 3rd person | his her their its | his hers theirs - |
We use a possessive adjective before a noun to say who the noun belongs to.
Chris and Pat never cut the grass in their garden.
We use a possessive pronoun without a noun, when the noun is understood.
He is always using my shampoo. Why doesn’t he buy his?
We normally use possessives with parts of the body, clothes and family members.
‘How are your children?’ ‘Fine, thanks.’
Jenny broke her leg skiing.
They took off their coats and sat down.
We don’t use possessives immediately after articles or after this/ that.
a friend, of mine, that brother of yours.
We often use the instead of a possessive in expressions with prepositions, especially when talk about common kinds of pain, illness and physical contact, and when the possessor has already been mentioned.
He’s got a pain in the chest.
Anne’s got a cold in the head.
I looked him in the eye.
Упражнения: Пособие“Pronouns” (Составитель: Полякова Г.А.) p.7 ex.4A, 4B, p.8 ex.4D, 4E.
Grammarway 3 p.160 ex.3,4,5,6, p.162 ex.8,9.
Reflexive pronouns.
There aren’t many verbs in English which we must always use with reflexive pronouns: absent oneself, avail oneself (of), pride oneself (on).
The verbs amuse, blame, cut, dry, enjoy, hurt, introduce can be used both with and without reflexive pronouns. (enjoy yourself = have a good time; help yourself to smth = take smth for yourself) to behave oneself
The verbs wash, shave, dress, feel, hurry, relax, concentrate are normally used without reflexive pronouns.
I can’t concentrate.
I must try to relax.
We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object of a clause are the same.
Annie hurst herself when she fell over.
I cut myself shaving in the morning.
The computer will turn itself off if you don’t use it.
He tried to kill himself.
We use reflexive pronouns to emphasize the subject or object. In this case they usually come at the end of the sentence, but they can also come after the subject.
Robert himself is quite friendly, but the rest of his family is very cold.
I’ll see the President himself if necessary.
The house itself is nice, but the garden’s small.
I can do it myself.
After prepositions, we use object pronouns instead of reflexive pronouns when it is clear who we are talking about.
I’ll take some money with me.
The pronouns on my own/ by myself = alone, without anyone else.
The old man lives on his own/ by himself.
I don’t want to go out on my own/ by myself.
To take care of oneself
To look after oneself
Reciprocal pronouns.
We prefer each other for two people or things, and one another for more than two.
Hilary and June write to each other every week.
We’ve promised one another to telephone if one of us is going to be late home.
Demonstrative pronouns.
this and that are singular; these and those are plural.
We use this and these to talk about things near the speaker. We use that and those to talk about things that are further away from the speaker.
Упражнения: Пособие “Pronoun” (Составитель: Полякова Г.А.) p.9 ex. 5A, 5B; p.10 ex. 5D; p.11 Round the world alone, p.12 ex.1.
Relative pronouns.
Relative pronouns who(m), which, whose, that introduce relative clauses. A relative clause tells us which person or thing the speaker means.
The man who lives in the flat above is an actor.
We use who/ that to refer to people.
We use which/ that to refer to objects or animals.
The man who designed our house is an architect.
The car which is parked outside belongs to me.
We use whose instead of possessive adjectives (my, your, his, etc.) with people, objects and animals in order to show possession.
That’s the house whose entrance is guarded.
That’s the woman whose house caught fire yesterday.
We often use that instead of which and who in an informal style.
I know some people that can help you.
We normally use that, not which after all, everything, nothing, the only and superlatives. We do not use what in these cases.
I’ve told you all that I know.
The only thing that matters to me is your happiness.
The most useful thing that was ever made...
We can use which to refer back to a whole clause.
He lent me some money which was very generous of him.
Who/ which/ that cannot be omitted it it is the subject of the relative clause.
The dog which/ that ran away is mine.
Who/ which/ that can be omitted when it is the object of the relative clause.
I spoke to a man (whom) I had met before.
We usually avoid using prepositions before relative pronouns.
The safe which/ that we keep the money in is in the basement.
(usually structure)
The safe we keep the money in is in the basement. (everyday English)