Question

Select a suitable option to complete the sentence:
I forgot my pen at home. May I borrow ______ ?

• A. our
• B. your
• C. yours
• D. my

Answer 1

The correct option is C yours

A pronoun refers to a noun that's been mentioned before, to avoid repetition. A personal pronoun refers to a person as in, first person (I), second person (you) and third person (she, etc.), possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that demonstrate ownership. Possessive pronouns have two forms, those that precede a noun, they act as an adjective, as they declare ownership of the noun, in other words they modify that noun, such as 'my, your', for example, 'your book', hence they're called possessive adjectives. The second form are possessive pronouns that don't precede a noun such as mine, yours, and so on. They refer to a noun mentioned earlier and hence the noun is not repeated again. We're given two sentences here, in the first we're given a noun 'pen' which is not repeated in the second interrogative sentence. The speaker asks the listener if he can borrow the listener's pen as he has forgotten his, but does not repeat the word 'pen'. Instead, he introduces a pronoun that declares possession of a pen, and 'yours' refers to the listener's pen, hence option C is correct. 'Our' is used for first person plural, whereas the listener is the second person who is spoken to, hence option A is incorrect. 'Your' is usually followed by a noun, 'your' when placed in this sentence is incomplete. It's the last word and we're left asking the question your 'what?'. Hence option B is incorrect. Similarly, 'my' is a possessive adjective, it's in the first person point of view, as in, from the speaker's view, who just said that he forgot his pen. Also, the speaker can't borrow his own pen from someone else. Hence option D is also incorrect.