Subject pronouns and possessive adjectives

Subject pronouns say who acts, possessive adjectives modify nouns, and possessive pronouns stand completely alone.

Pronouns replace nouns so that speech and writing flow smoothly without repetitive names. English organizes personal pronouns into three distinct structural roles based on their grammatical function: (1) Subject Pronouns (Who performs the action): Sit before the finite verb as the subject of the clause: I, you, he, she, it, we, they. Examples: "I live in Bristol", "She speaks three languages fluently", "They play football every Sunday". (2) Possessive Adjectives (Determiners that modify a noun): Always sit immediately before a head noun to establish ownership or relationship: my, your, his, her, its, our, their. Examples: "This is my laptop", "His sister is a doctor", "Our house is nearby". They cannot stand alone without a noun. (3) Possessive Pronouns (Stand alone, replacing the entire noun phrase): Replace the possessive adjective and its noun together to eliminate repetition: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. Examples: "The red umbrella is mine", "Is this coffee cup yours?", "Their garden is small, but ours is large". They never take a noun after them. Form Matrix: I → my → mine; You → your → yours; He → his → his; She → her → hers; It → its → (not used); We → our → ours; They → their → theirs. Critical Distinction: Its vs. It's: Its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive form showing ownership ("The cat washed its paws"). It's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction meaning it is or it has ("It's raining outside").