Question

It seems Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella because I can see only _______ on the shelf. they theirs There are two types of possessive pronouns: (1) possessive pronouns (mine, hers, ours, etc.) and (2) possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, its, our and their). We use them to refer to possession and ‘belonging’. We use possessive determiners before nouns: Is that your dress? But we use possessive pronouns without a noun: This handbag is very similar to mine.In the test sentence ‘It seems Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella because I can see only _______ on the shelf.’ there is not any noun after the omitted word: ‘I can see only what?’. Therefore, some possessive pronoun is omitted. As the context is given in the test: ‘…Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella …’, it is supposed that Mark and Jane (they) left their umbrella. Therefore, the possessive pronoun that correlates with the personal subject pronoun ‘they’ is ‘theirs’: ‘they’ (the personal subject pronoun) → ‘theirs’ (the possessive pronoun).Therefore, we choose ANSWER 4: theirs.

Accepted Answer

them their d

Question	It seems Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella because I can see only _______ on the shelf.
A	them
B	they
C	their
D	theirs
Answer	d
Remark	There are two types of possessive pronouns: (1) possessive pronouns (mine, hers, ours, etc.) and (2) possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, its, our and their). We use them to refer to possession and ‘belonging’. We use possessive determiners before nouns: Is that your dress? But we use possessive pronouns without a noun: This handbag is very similar to mine.In the test sentence ‘It seems Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella because I can see only _______ on the shelf.’ there is not any noun after the omitted word: ‘I can see only what?’. Therefore, some possessive pronoun is omitted. As the context is given in the test: ‘…Mark and Jane have taken my umbrella …’, it is supposed that Mark and Jane (they) left their umbrella. Therefore, the possessive pronoun that correlates with the personal subject pronoun ‘they’ is ‘theirs’: ‘they’ (the personal subject pronoun) → ‘theirs’ (the possessive pronoun).Therefore, we choose ANSWER 4: theirs.

Possessive Jane Mark Umbrella Pronoun I Determiners Personal