Possessive pronouns serve to express ownership or possession, replacing nouns and indicating that something belongs to someone or something. They are valuable in avoiding repetition within sentences.

English possesses the following possessive pronouns:

• Mine: Indicates that something belongs to the speaker. For instance: "The book is mine."

• Yours: Indicates that something belongs to the person being addressed. For example: "Is this pen yours?"

• His: Indicates that something belongs to a male. For instance: "That is his car."

• Hers: Indicates that something belongs to a female. For example: "The phone is hers."

• Its: Indicates that something belongs to a non-human object or an animal. For example: "The dog wagged its tail."

• Ours: Indicates that something belongs to a group that includes the speaker. For example: "The house is ours."

• Yours: Indicates that something belongs to a group of people being addressed. For instance: "Is this project yours?"

• Theirs: Indicates that something belongs to a group of people or objects. For example: "The keys are theirs."

It's worth noting that possessive pronouns do not require an apostrophe ('), unlike possessive nouns. For example, "hers" is a possessive pronoun, while "Mary's" is a possessive noun.