Talk:Possessive pronoun

Possessive adjective
This article could contain some discussion of the term "possessive adjective" still commonly used. &mdash; Hippietrail 15:25, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I just put in a link to it. I think "possessive adjectives" should redirect to "possessive adjective", not this page. PizzaMargherita 22:16, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Just a question: Possesive Pronouns are usually considered what? 5:57 May 15 ,2012

Genitive case of pronouns vs "distinct" possessive pronouns
Hi there.

Few languages have distinct possessive pronouns, since possession can be expressed with, for example, a genitive case.

The genitive case of a pronoun is sometimes confused with a possessive pronoun.

I'm not sure I understand this, as it seems to contradict the rest of the article. Do you mean that "mine" is not a "distinct" possessive pronoun, but only the genitive case of "I"? Couldn't one say the same thing for "my" then? (See possessive adjective for a Finnish example.) Also, could you please give an example of a "distinct" possessive pronoun in any of the few languages that have them? Thanks. PizzaMargherita 23:49, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I think you really meant to put this stuff in the possessive adjective article, but it looks like it's already there... PizzaMargherita 07:29, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I propose the following: Thanks. PizzaMargherita 21:24, 28 December 2005 (UTC) Hope you like the results. PizzaMargherita 21:28, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) We keep (in both articles) the remarks that some languages use the genitive case of personal pronouns to indicate possession instead of possessive adjective and pronouns
 * 2) We move the Finnish examples of both pages to this section of the possessive suffix, which is already linked anyway. That way we
 * 3) Avoid repetitions
 * 4) Keep all Finnish things in one place
 * 5) Don't have a section in articles supposedly talking about possessive pronouns/adjectives explaining with examples how some languages don't have any possessive pronouns/adjectives, because it may be misleading to some - well, it has been to me.

Dude. Why are you talking to yourself? is your account legit? Mrdthree 03:34, 27 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Assume good faith. PizzaMargherita 06:20, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you get some evidence that a pronoun that is used as a possessive pronoun is not in fact a possessive pronoun. Like (1) a grammar book reference and (2) a finnish speaker. Mrdthree 03:36, 27 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your suggestion. PizzaMargherita 06:26, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia says mine is an adjective
mine. Mrdthree 03:39, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Not anymore. Thanks for flagging this. PizzaMargherita 06:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

A question
What is the latin name for "possessive pronoun" ? Kristian Joensen 13:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Confusions galore
I hardly know where to start with this article. Its own start, perhaps:


 * A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. Like all other pronouns, it substitutes a noun phrase....

Oh? Consider: ''The infant died after she fell into the swimming pool. There was no fence around the pool, and the mistake was mine.'' How do I or did I "own" or "possess" the mistake?

Is "the boy" an NP or a DP? Linguists differ; there's something to be said for both points of view. If you think that it's an NP then, yes, a "possessive pronoun" substitutes for a NP. If you think it's a DP, then the "possessive pronoun" substitutes for a DP (indeed, you'll probably say it is a DP) and does not substitute for an NP.

Etc. -- Hoary 09:31, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

those are mine not yours. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.198.86 (talk) 12:55, 16 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Seems to me that your explanation is circular: you're explaining [or not] genitive case-marking by appeal to genitive case-marking. -- Hoary (talk) 13:18, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Ones/One's
Is 'one' not a pronoun when used as follows: "To get ahead, one must sometimes help oneself". Does this mean we should write "one blames one's lack of willpower." or "One blames ones lack of willpower."? Someone in the know, please clarify. Thanks. Donama (talk) 00:03, 28 January 2010 (UTC) NB: Wiktionary suggests the former --> Donama (talk) 00:05, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Using a name/noun
I'm not a native english speaker, nor do I know a lot of english grammar. With that said, don't get mad at me for asking: Isn't it still a possessive pronoun even if you use a name/noun as the third form (singular), for example "That would be Stevens car"? If so, why aren't there any rules written about it? For example I've been thought that the only few occasions you may end with a ' before the s, is if the noun/name ends with an s. For example: "That would be Stevens car." "No, actually, that's Chris's car.". Thanks for eventually clearing things up... Sweed Raver (talk) 10:45, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Steven and Chris are called proper nouns (pronouns are the words used in place of proper nouns. eg. in "Shaun has his stick" his stands in place of Shaun's) so are therefore not pronouns, so adding ′s doesn't put it in the possessive pronoun category. Donama (talk) 00:31, 1 February 2010 (UTC)
 * That would be Steven's car. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 08:13, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

On misspellings, etc
If this is really an improvement, I'd like to know how.

Yes, people write "our's" when they mean "ours" (and so on). Should Wikipedia give advice on this? I think not -- Wikipedia isn't in the business of giving advice. But if it should give advice or remark on misspellings, then it should be brief.

Meanwhile, the article is unhelpful in perpetuating the myth, rejected by linguists for a century or so, that "my" and so forth are adjectives. -- Hoary (talk) 23:49, 6 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm uncomfortable with the change, especially with that level of detail, and agree in general with you. I'm probably too occupied with other stuff to help much though. Donama (talk) 01:09, 7 July 2010 (UTC)


 * No response (let alone any convincing response), so I'm about to revert. -- Hoary (talk) 10:09, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

POS
A possessive pronoun is not a part of speech. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.44.93.68 (talk) 14:48, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Yours vs Your
The article fails to mention 'your'. And I think some discussion of the difference between the two is merited.

Analogous cases are our/ours and their/theirs. I'm not a grammar expert but the difference seems to revolve around the possessive being used as a modifier of the object being possessed.

For example: That is your car. That car is yours.

And does anyone know how this came about? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Loosebits (talk • contribs) 12:55, 17 March 2011 (UTC)