What is the difference between possessive and object pronouns?

Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) receive an action or follow a preposition: "Call him." Possessives show ownership, either before a noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) or on their own (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs): "his phone", "the phone is his".

Possessive vs. Object Pronouns: Chart, Examples and Quick Test

Q: Is "his" an object pronoun?

No. "His" is always possessive, both before a noun ("his car") and on its own ("the car is his"). The object pronoun for "he" is "him".

Q: What is the possessive pronoun for "it"?

"Its", with no apostrophe: "The company changed its policy." "It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has".

Grammar rules

Short answer: an object pronoun (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) stands in for a noun that receives an action: "Call him." A possessive shows ownership: either before a noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their: "his phone") or on its own (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs: "The phone is his"). If the word describes whose something is, it's possessive. If it is the thing being acted on, it's an object pronoun.

English pronouns change form depending on the job they do in a sentence. Mixing up the object form and the possessive form is one of the most common small errors in everyday writing. Spell-check can't catch it, because both words are real and spelled correctly.

Possessive vs. object pronoun chart

Subject	Object	Possessive + noun	Possessive alone
I	me	my book	mine
you	you	your idea	yours
he	him	his answer	his
she	her	her plan	hers
it	it	its color	(rarely used)
we	us	our house	ours
they	them	their car	theirs

Quick test

Look at what comes right after the pronoun. If it's followed by a noun it describes ("their car," "our house"), you need the possessive. If it stands alone after a verb or preposition ("give it to them," "wait for us"), you need the object form.

✗ I saw them car in the driveway.
✓ I saw their car in the driveway. (possessive: whose car)

✗ Send the file to my and Sara.
✓ Send the file to Sara and me. (object: receives "send to")

Is "his" an object pronoun?

No. "His" is always possessive. It works both before a noun ("his car") and on its own ("the car is his"). The object pronoun for "he" is him: "I called him." "Her" is the tricky one, because it is both the object form ("I called her") and the possessive before a noun ("her car"). On its own, the possessive becomes "hers": "The car is hers."

What is the possessive pronoun for "it"?

The possessive of "it" is its, with no apostrophe: "The company changed its policy." "It's" always means "it is" or "it has." If you can replace it with "it is" and the sentence still makes sense, use the apostrophe. If not, you want "its."

✗ The company changed it's policy.
✓ The company changed its policy.
✓ It's raining. (It is raining.)

The mix-ups people actually make

✗ Me and him went to the game. → ✓ He and I went to the game. (subject, not object)
✗ Between you and I, it's late. → ✓ Between you and me, it's late. (object after a preposition)
✗ Is this book your's? → ✓ Is this book yours? (possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe)
✗ Thanks for you helping. → ✓ Thanks for your help. (possessive before a noun)

Before an -ing word used as a noun, formal writing prefers the possessive: "I appreciate your helping out" rather than "I appreciate you helping out." Both are common in speech. Use the possessive in formal writing.

For pairs joined with "and," cover the other person and read the sentence with just the pronoun. "Send the file to me" sounds right; "send the file to I" doesn't.

Catching this automatically

These mix-ups slip through because both forms of each pair are real, correctly spelled words. Only grammar-level context catches them. Proofread Bot checks pronoun usage in context and flags exactly this category of mistake.

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