1. There are a number of possessive adjectives in English (his, her, its, our, your, their, my). Using a possessive adjective is another way to show that something belongs to someone. For example, we can write the sentence ‘The man’s narrow eyes frightened her‘, a different way using a possessive adjective – ‘His narrow eyes frightened her.’ In this sentence, the possessive adjective ‘His‘ accompanies the noun phrase ‘narrow eyes‘
2. Look at this extract from The Cook (Chapter 3) and find examples of possessive adjectives. What are the noun phrases that accompany the possessive adjectives? [Watch out for ‘her’ – it can also be an object pronoun]
Inside the school’s dining hall, two ladies in pink uniforms collected dirty plates and took them to the kitchen. Lunch finished twenty minutes ago and now it was their job to clean everything. They emptied the plates, put them in the dishwashers and went to fetch more from the tables. They did not look at the four people at the back of the room.
‘Ms Pickles,’ began the man, ‘you don’t have any cooking qualifications. Is that correct?’
This was her big chance. She wanted to work, to start again; but the man’s narrow, grey eyes and his small, sharp teeth frightened her.
3. Look at these sentences. Decide if ‘her’ is being used as a possessive adjective or object pronoun
a. I gave her my book
b. Her family name is ‘Smith’
c. I spoke to her brother last night
d. Her favourite actor won an award
e. I don’t know her very well, but I know her older sister
f. The man’s narrow eyes frightened her
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