Pronouns and Possessives: I, Me, My, Mine
Who is doing what to whom, and whose it is — the small words English uses constantly and learners mix up for years.
These words are short, extremely frequent, and easy to get slightly wrong forever. The table is worth memorising properly once.
The four sets
| Subject | Object | Possessive adjective | Possessive pronoun |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | me | my | mine |
| you | you | your | yours |
| he | him | his | his |
| she | her | her | hers |
| it | it | its | — |
| we | us | our | ours |
| they | them | their | theirs |
Subject or object?
The subject does the action; the object receives it.
- She called me. (she does, I receive)
- We invited them.
❌ Me and John went to the shop. ✅ John and I went to the shop. (we are doing the going)
Quick test: remove the other person. Me went is obviously wrong, so it must be I went.
My or mine?
My comes before a noun. Mine replaces the whole phrase.
- That is my bag.
- That bag is mine. (not my)
❌ That is mine bag. ✅ That is my bag.
The apostrophe
For people, add 's:
- Anna's car · my brother's house
- Plural already ending in -s: just an apostrophe — the students' results
- Irregular plural: the children's books
Its and it's
This is the single most common written error in English, native speakers included.
- its = belonging to it — The dog wagged its tail.
- it's = it is / it has — It's raining.
Its has no apostrophe. If you can say "it is", use it's; otherwise its.
Test yourself
The quiz below covers all four columns and the apostrophe.