Possessives worksheets
24 worksheets · Nouns, adjectives & little words
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Possessives worksheets
24 printable worksheets with answer keys.
About Possessives
Possessives show who something belongs to. English uses 's with people and animals (Tom's bike, the dog's bowl) and an apostrophe after regular plurals (my parents' house). Possessive adjectives come before a noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their), and possessive pronouns replace it (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs). Whose asks about the owner: Whose bag is this? – It's Anna's.
Possessives are taught at A1, often with family, clothes and classroom objects. Learners confuse his and her, especially if in their language the possessive agrees with the thing owned, say *the book of Maria instead of Maria's book, write it's for its, and add apostrophes to pronouns (*your's, *her's).
This page collects printable possessives worksheets with answer keys, which print as PDFs or can be solved online through a class link.
Teaching tips: Possessives
- Build a family tree for a well-known family and practice 's: Kate is William's wife.
- Play a lost-property game: collect objects and ask Whose is this? – It's mine / It's Pedro's.
- Keep a three-column table (I – my – mine, she – her – hers) on the wall for reference.
- Watch for his/her mix-ups; ask 'Is the owner a man or a woman?', because the possessive depends on the owner, not on the thing owned.
Questions teachers ask
When do we use 's and when do we use of?
We usually use 's with people and animals (my brother's car) and of with things and parts of things (the end of the movie, the top of the page).
Where does the apostrophe go with plurals?
After the s for regular plurals (the girls' changing room) and before the s for irregular plurals that don't end in s: the children's toys, the men's shoes.
Why do learners say 'the car of my father'?
It is a direct translation from languages that use a preposition for possession, such as Spanish, French or Italian. Contrast it with my father's car and practice with family vocabulary.