#48 - Is that his phone or her phone? 📱 - Practice with possessive adjectives

If that phone belongs to Mary, I can say “That is Mary’s phone.” If that phone belongs to John, I can say, “That book is John’s phone.” When we are talking about someone owning or possessing something, we can use the person’s name, add an apostrophe plus an ‘s’  to show possession or ownership. An apostrophe is a little mark. It looks like a comma, but it is higher, not down on the line like a comma. Look in the written summary of this podcast to see an example of an apostrophe. (‘)  We also use apostrophes for contractions when we put two words together to make one; For example, “I’m”  is short for “I am”. We use apostrophes in contractions to show that we have left a letter or letters out to make the contraction. Got it! But today we are talking about possession. Let’s go back to “That is Mary’s phone.” . and “That is John’s phone. “Yes! When we see those sentences written, we see an apostrophe plus “s” in Mary’s name and in John’s name to show that the phone belongs to Mary and the book belongs to John. OK, so far so good! Now, if we are talking and we both know that we are talking about Mary, I don’t need to say Mary’s phone, I can just say “her” phone. “her” is a possessive adjective. It means that phone belongs to Mary. It is her phone.  An adjective is a describing word. A describing word that describes a noun or pronoun – ( a person, place or thing.) A “possessive adjective” shows who owns or possesses the person, place or thing. “Her” is the feminine possessive adjective. We use “her” when the person. place or thing belongs to a woman or girl – a female.Emily ‘s car is new. Her car is new. Carol’s daughter is a teacher. Her daughter is a teacher.
Notice that the possessive adjective “her” does not have an apostrophe.  “Her” is the feminine possessive adjective. Let’s go back to John.  We said
that is John’s phone.” John is a male so we cannot use the feminine possessive adjective for John’s book, can we? We have to use the masculine possessive adjective.
And what is masculine possessive adjective? “his”  That is John’s phone.  That is his phone. John’s brother lives in Mexico. His brother lives in Mexico. John’s apartment is nice. His apartment is nice.
There are seven possessive adjectives. We are focusing on her and his, because they are the probably the most challenging possessive adjectives for English learners. If you use her when you are talking about a female person or animal who possesses something and his when you are talking about a masculine person or animal possessing something, you can be proud! Watch future episodes for practice using the other five possessive adjectives!

Here’s a short story. Listen for those possessive adjectives – her and his!

Mona and her kids are at the fair. Her son’s name is Max. Her daughter’s name is Hannah. Hannah and Max have balloons on long strings. Her balloon is red and his balloon is yellow.  Max doesn’t want his balloon. He wants his sister’s balloon.But Hannah doesn’t want her brother’s yellow balloon. She wants her red balloon because her favorite color is red. Max grabs Hannah’s balloon string. Hannah pulls her balloon string away from Max. Max loses his grip on the string of his balloon.  He watches as his balloon floats upward in the sky. Hannah holds the string of her balloon tightly. Max looks up at his mom with tears in his eyes. Hannah has a big smile on her

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