Possessive pronouns are non-bound grammatical morphemes that appear as attributes of the possessed noun and refer to the possessor’s person, number, gender and/or class. The position of this morpheme may vary across languages.

Types:

NoPoss(NB): The language does not have possessive pronouns.[1]

Poss(NB)N: Possessive pronouns precede the possessed noun.

Nposs(NB): Possessive pronouns follow the possessed noun.

[1] Possessive pronouns are considered to exist as an independent word class in a language if the following conditions are met: (1) independent grammatical words express the person and/or number of the possessor, and (2) these words do not overlap with personal pronouns. Therefore, the genitive form of a personal pronoun does not constitute a possessive pronoun. Similarly, the Hungarian az én (‘my’), as in az én házam ‘my house’, does not constitute a true possessive pronoun. Despite being preceded by an obligatory definite article, the first-person singular pronoun én is clearly a part of the construction.