Thedifferencebetween apossessivepronounand apossessiveadjectiveis best understood when the definitions of each are clear. Apronounis a term used in place of anoun: she, you, they, we, and it. An adjective is used to modify or describe anoun, or in some cases anadverb:Uglydog,beautifultree,tastysoup.
People may get confused with the distinctions between apossessive pronounand apossessiveadjective because the words used aspossessivepronouns are often slight modifications of the words used forpossessiveadjectives. The main distinction is that thepossessivepronounis used in place of anoun, while thepossessiveadjective will always modify anoun.
Consider the following example:
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If we want to substitute in apossessivepronounto replace thenounSallys, wed merely write:
The car is hers.
This is clearly apossessivepronounsince we have taken out thepossessivenounSallysand replaced it withhers.
When youre trying to determine thedifferencebetween apossessivepronounand apossessiveadjective, a further example helps. If we want to use apossessiveadjective, we might write:
That is her car.
Suddenly, instead of using apronoun, we have usedherto modify and further describe thenouncar,Heris an adjective in this case, indicating possession.
