Possessive Pronouns: Rules and Examples

Possessive pronouns show that something belongs to someone. The possessive pronouns are my, our, your, his, her, its, and their. There’s also an “independent” form of each of these pronouns: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, and theirs. Possessive pronouns are never spelled with apostrophes.

Possessive pronouns simplify constructions that show possession of a noun.

Jane takes pride in Jane’s outfits.

It sounds odd to use Jane’s name twice in this sentence. A possessive pronoun solves the problem:

Jane takes pride in her outfits.

Thus, possessive pronouns are quite handy and are used frequently in the English language.

My plane is delayed.

Your dinner is ready.

Could you bring his tea out to him?

Remember not to judge a book by its cover.

I would have knocked on their door, but I heard their baby crying.

Independent Possessive Pronouns

Independent possessive pronouns (also called absolute possessive pronouns) must be used without a noun.

My phone is dead. Pass me yours.

Did you know that Labrador is mine?

The house on the corner is theirs.

As you can see, it is common to see independent possessive pronouns at the ends of clauses or phrases.

A Common Mistake: Its vs. It’s

A very common error is putting an apostrophe in the possessive pronoun its. It is easy to confuse its with the contraction of it is, it’s, which does have an apostrophe. Remember, though, possessive pronouns never use apostrophes.

The boat lost it’s mast in the storm.

The boat lost its mast in the storm.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

If you think about the rules for possessive pronouns for a split second every time you write its or it’s, you will never make this mistake again.

The Ultimate Desk Accessories to Boost Productivity

Does it matter what’s on your desk? A study published in Psychological Science indicates the answer is yes! The study reported associations with the state of one’s desk and generosity, creativity, and even healthy eating. However, most employees (and their bosses) concern themselves most with productivity.

Which of these eight desk accessories would boost your productivity at work?

Standing Desk It’s no surprise that standing rather than sitting burns more calories, but did you realize that a standing desk can increase your productivity? Take a look at a case study: Researchers provided half of a group of call center employees with standing desks while the other half continued to use standard desks and chairs. After six months, the employees who used stand-capable desks were almost twice as productive as those who performed work duties from a seated position. The study also revealed that the standing desk users became significantly more productive over time, perhaps as their body acclimated to working in a standing position.

Fidget Spinner The fidget spinner is a small device that you can spin with your fingers. Before they hit the market as a toy, therapists used them to help students with ADD or other attention disorders to channel their pent-up energy. How might this gadget affect your productivity? Elaine Taylor-Klaus, the co-founder of a coaching service for the ADHD community, said they address “the need for constant stimulation.” She continues: “What a fidget allows some people . . . to do is to focus their attention on what they want to focus on, because there’s sort of a background motion that’s occupying that need.” Instead of daydreaming or wandering away from your desk, a fidget toy may be just what you need to keep you on task.

Extra Monitor Dual monitors save time. Have you ever composed a report using information from an email? Or compared two digital images in different windows? Or scrolled from right to left on a large spreadsheet? A second monitor would have eliminated the need to switch back and forth between windows or applications. How much would that affect your output? Considerably, according to a New York Times report: “Survey after survey shows that whether you measure your productivity in facts researched, alien spaceships vaporized, or articles written, adding an extra monitor will give your output a considerable boost — 20 percent to 30 percent, according to a survey by Jon Peddie Research.”

Mountie If the budget doesn’t cover a second monitor, a Mountie is the next best option. Instead of a monitor, the second screen is your smartphone! Mounties attach your phone to the frame of your portable computer. Then, you can check emails, receive notifications, and refer to web pages on your phone at eye level. The only downside is that Mountie doesn’t work with desktops yet.

Noise-Canceling Headphones Noise-canceling headphones foster productivity for two reasons. First, they discourage coworkers from interrupting you because you look occupied. Second, they live up to their name! Without the constant chatter, bangs, and clangs of your work environment, your ears are free to listen to whatever music gets you motivated to face your daily challenges.

Nostalgia Items Is there a particular toy or item that brings back good memories from your childhood, university, or college days? In an article for Huffington Post, Erica Heppler, Ph.D., describes nostalgia as “the warm, fuzzy emotion that we feel when we think about fond memories from our past.” Nostalgia reduces stress and uplifts you because it brings the positive feelings of your past into your current mood. Another benefit of nostalgia is its power to strengthen social connections. Your treasured object may engender the same sentiments in your clients and fellow employees. “Hey, we have something in common!” they may exclaim. And voilá, you’ve opened the way for a conversation and built rapport. What a great excuse to buy an Etch-a-Sketch! Photographs of loved ones, pets, or vacations also serve the same function.

Desk Organizer Has it ever taken you more than five minutes to find a lost file or office utensil? If you add all the minutes you lost searching for things on your desk, you might be astounded at the amount of time you wasted. Get a file sorter and a desk tray to organize your work tools. Of course, those items won’t help you if you don’t train yourself to put things back where they belong when you finish using them.

A Potted Plant Plants are beautiful, but that’s not their only nice quality. Evidence from two separate scientific studies supports the connection between desk plants and efficiency. A research study reported in the Journal of Environmental Psychology tested participants’ performance on an assessment of “attention capacity” at three different intervals. The results? “Participants in the plant condition improved their performance from time one to two, whereas this was not the case in the no-plant condition.” A second experiment revealed that plants seemed to “provide a restorative potential.” Plants also clean the air of pollutants.

If you want to be more productive, take a good look at your desk. With a few accessories, you can maximize how much you get done in a workday. Naturally, you’ll need to give attention to your habits too. Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style by Carson Tate will get you started.

The Internet Can Cultivate Writing. Good Writing.

Image from LoadingArtist.com

Almost anyone who cares about language and knows about or uses the Internet has been guilty at one time or another of demonizing the world wide web for its effects on the English language. “The Internet makes it easy for people, including professional writers, to publish writing publicly without editing.” “The Internet encourages casual writing and doesn’t reinforce proper writing skills.” “Students would write better if they weren’t on Facebook all the time.” It’s easy to blame the Internet and say that if it didn’t exist, written English would be on solid ground.

Let’s be realistic, though. We love the Internet. Very few people would like to go back to a time without email, instant messaging, video conferencing, or lolcats. Oh, lolcats! The world wide web is here, and it’s here to stay. Rather than focus on the supposed degradation of English, we should work on using the Internet to make writing better.

It’s important to note that many of the writing errors we see aren’t necessarily because of the Internet. People probably aren’t making more mistakes than they did before; it’s just that the mistakes are more visible now because of all the writing we do in emails, social media, and text messages. When we recognize this, other causes of language degradation enter the picture. Many are more systemic than Internet use and have been issues for decades, including (but not limited to) what is effectively stagnation in K–12 English reading and writing proficiency. (See the long-term national data on reading and writing. Note especially the middle and high school averages.)

To improve writing on the Internet, we need to improve writing in general. This must happen in the classroom, early and often. There are several great web tools to assist educators in this endeavor, of which Grammarly is only one. Other helpful resources include:

• interactive guides like those from ReadWriteThink;
• community forums and discussion boards, like Grammarly Answers and English Forums;
• quality word tools, such as Grammarly Words (a dictionary-thesaurus hybrid aimed at helping you choose the best words, not just different ones); and
• traditional teaching materials like those from The National Writing Project and  The Schreyer Institute.

However, there is no escaping that for the most effective improvement, quality English and writing education needs to become a political and social priority.

Also, we must admit that, just as there are back alleys on the web where English gets kicked around, abused, and left to die (check out any YouTube comments section), there are also many places where correct language is still revered (see, especially, serious blogs and news sources, such as the New York Times). And there are many more places where the quality of the language is what you make of it; that is, both casual and more formal language styles are supported (Facebook and many other social networks are good examples). It is due to blogs, forums, and social networks that people are writing more than ever before. This is a good thing. Furthermore, the Internet is an equalizer; people from all strata of society are free to explore various kinds of writing as never before. This is a great thing.

We should let these communities thrive as they will, discouraging intellectual finger-pointing and encouraging context-appropriate writing along the way. However, we do need to teach people how to differentiate between informal textspeak and the formal, more standard writing style suited for public and professional writing.

What effect do you think the Internet has had on writing?

Conditional Sentences—Rules You Need to Know

• There are four types of conditional sentences.
• It’s important to use the correct structure for each of these different conditional sentences because they express varying meanings.
• Pay attention to verb tense when using different conditional modes.
• Use a comma after the if-clause when the if-clause precedes the main clause.

Conditional sentences are statements discussing known factors or hypothetical situations and their consequences. Complete conditional sentences contain a conditional clause (often referred to as the if-clause) and the consequence. Consider the following sentences:

If a certain condition is true, then a particular result happens.

I would travel around the world if I won the lottery.

When water reaches 100 degrees, it boils.

What Are the Different Types of Conditional Sentences? There are four different types of conditional sentences in English. Each expresses a different degree of probability that a situation will occur or would have occurred under certain circumstances.

• Zero Conditional Sentences
• First Conditional Sentences
• Second Conditional Sentences
• Third Conditional Sentences

Let’s look at each of these different types of conditional sentences in more detail.

How to Use Zero Conditional Sentences

Zero conditional sentences express general truths—situations in which one thing always causes another. When you use a zero conditional, you’re talking about a general truth rather than a specific instance of something. Consider the following examples:

If you don’t brush your teeth, you get cavities.

When people smoke cigarettes, their health suffers.

There are a couple of things to take note of in the above sentences in which the zero conditional is used. First, when using the zero conditional, the correct tense to use in both clauses is the simple present tense. A common mistake is to use the simple future tense.

When people smoke cigarettes, their health will suffer.

Secondly, notice that the words if and when can be used interchangeably in these zero conditional sentences. This is because the outcome will always be the same, so it doesn’t matter “if” or “when” it happens.

How to Use First Conditional Sentences

First conditional sentences are used to express situations in which the outcome is likely (but not guaranteed) to happen in the future. Look at the examples below:

If you rest, you will feel better.

If you set your mind to a goal, you’ll eventually achieve it.

Note that we use the simple present tense in the if-clause and simple future tense in the main clause—that is, the clause that expresses the likely outcome. This is how we indicate that under a certain condition (as expressed in the if-clause), a specific result will likely happen in the future. Examine some of the common mistakes people make using the first conditional structure:

If you will rest, you will feel better.

If you rest, you will feel better.

Explanation: Use the simple present tense in the if-clause.

If you set your mind to a goal, you eventually achieve it.

If you set your mind to a goal, you’ll eventually achieve it.

Explanation: Use the zero conditional (i.e., simple present + simple present) only when a certain result is guaranteed. If the result is likely, use the first conditional (i.e., simple present + simple future).

How to Use Second Conditional Sentences

Second conditional sentences are useful for expressing outcomes that are completely unrealistic or will not likely happen in the future. Consider the examples below:

If I inherited a billion dollars, I would travel to the moon.

If I owned a zoo, I might let people interact with the animals more.

Notice the correct way to structure second conditional sentences is to use the simple past tense in the if-clause and an auxiliary modal verb (e.g., could, should, would, might) in the main clause (the one that expresses the unrealistic or unlikely outcome). The following sentences illustrate a couple of the common mistakes people make when using the second conditional:

If I inherit a billion dollars, I would travel to the moon.

If I inherited a billion dollars, I would travel to the moon.

Explanation: When applying the second conditional, use the simple past tense in the if-clause.

If I owned a zoo, I will let people interact with the animals more.

If I owned a zoo, I might let people interact with the animals more.

Explanation: Use a modal auxiliary verb in the main clause when using the second conditional mood to express the unlikelihood that the result will actually happen.

How to Use Third Conditional Sentences

Third conditional sentences are used to explain that present circumstances would be different if something different had happened in the past. Look at the following examples:

If you had told me you needed a ride, I would have left earlier.

If I had cleaned the house, I could have gone to the movies.

These sentences express a condition that was likely enough, but did not actually happen in the past. The speaker in the first sentence was capable of leaving early, but did not. Along these same lines, the speaker in the second sentence was capable of cleaning the house, but did not. These are all conditions that were likely, but regrettably did not happen.

Note that when using the third conditional, we use the past perfect (i.e., had + past participle) in the if-clause. The modal auxiliary (would, could, shoud, etc.) + have + past participle in the main clause expresses the theoretical situation that could have happened.

Consider these common mistakes when applying the third conditional:

If you would have told me you needed a ride, I would have left earlier.

If you had told me you needed a ride, I would have left earlier.

Explanation: With third conditional sentences, do not use a modal auxiliary verb in the if-clause.

If I had cleaned the house, I could go to the movies.

If I had cleaned the house, I could have gone to the movies.

Explanation: The third conditional mood expresses a situation that could have only happened in the past if a certain condition had been met. That’s why we use the modal auxiliary verb + have + the past participle.

Exceptions and Special Cases When Using Conditional Sentences

As with most topics in the English language, conditional sentences often present special cases in which unique rules must be applied.

Use of the Simple Future in the If-Clause

Generally speaking, the simple future should be used only in the main clause. One exception is when the action in the if-clause will take place after the action in the main clause. For example, consider the following sentence:

If aspirin will ease my headache, I will take a couple tonight.

The action in the if-clause is the aspirin easing the headache, which will take place only after the speaker takes them later that night.

“Were to” in the If-Clause

The verb phrase were to is sometimes used in conditional sentences when the likely or unlikely result is particularly awful or unthinkable. In this case, were to is used to place emphasis on this potential outcome. Consider these sentences:

If I were to be sick, I would miss another day of work.

If she were to be late again, she would have to have a conference with the manager.

If the rent were to have been a penny more, they would not have been able to pay it.

Note that the emphatic “were to” can be used to describe hypothetical scenarios in the present, future, and past.

Punctuating Conditional Sentences

Despite the complex nature of conditional sentences, punctuating them properly is really simple!

Here’s the skinny:

Use a comma after the if-clause when the if-clause precedes the main clause.

If I’d had time, I would have cleaned the house.

If the main clause precedes the if-clause, no punctuation is necessary.

I would have cleaned the house if I’d had time.

Neat-O! Vintage Slang Words to Add to Your Modern Vocabulary

Language changes over time. The popularity of words, especially slang or words related to technology or trends, ebbs and flows. Some long-forgotten words, however, are worth resurrecting. If you’re looking to add a retro update to your vocabulary, here are a few words and phrases from the last hundred years to try out.

1920s: The cat’s meow: The best or greatest. Your iPhone case is the cat’s meow!

1960s: Bummer: a bad experience. I thought Taylor Swift’s concert was a bummer. She only played songs from her new album instead of her older hits.

1970s: Bad: Ironically, if something is “bad” it is really good, stylish, or cool. Did you see North West’s new Louis Vuitton sneakers? They’re totally bad!

1970s: Dig It: To understand or agree. What an insightful Ted Talk this is. I dig it.

1980s: Pie-hole: a slang term for mouth. I can’t wait to stuff my pie-hole with this vegan, gluten-free pizza!

Which slang words do you think people should start using again? Share your favorites in the comments!

Is Correcting Your Coworkers’ Grammar OK?

Monday Motivation Hack: Avoid Negativity

Mondays induce negativity like no other day. After all, weekends are straight-up awesome. If we’re lucky, we get to sleep in, enjoy a breakfast that’s not rushed, and maybe savor a cup of coffee while laughing at YouTube videos of dogs failing at being dogs. Sometimes, we have exciting activities planned. Sometimes we get to enjoy leisure time. And sure, sometimes we work. But let’s not talk about that here, deal?

After a couple of days away from your responsibilities, Monday can come crashing in like a wrecking ball. Cue Miley Cyrus. Or this hedgehog.

via GIPHY

Yeah. Let’s go with the hedgehog.

When negativity threatens to wreck your Monday and make you less productive, try a few subtle things to help you make a major change in your attitude.

3 Quick Ways to Avoid Negativity at Work

1 Practice gratitude.

When we take time out to recognize all the good things happening in our day-to-day lives, we can’t help but become more positive, which makes us happier overall. It’s impossible to be both grateful and negative at the same time. And being grateful has surprising physical and mental health benefits.

Try keeping a gratitude journal. Take some time out of each week to reflect on the things you’re grateful for, and consider what your life might be like without them. If you’re struggling to get started, take a look at these tips from Robert Emmons, a leading expert and author of several studies on the science of gratitude.

2 Distract or combat.

The science of cognitive behavioral therapy brings us some cool ways to turn negativity around. When a negative thought enters your head, your first line of defense is to distract yourself from it. Listen to a song that makes you happy, hug a friend or family member, anything that will give your mood a boost.

If your negative emotion is still trying to get the best of you, put up a fight. Talk back to it and don’t be afraid to give it some serious attitude. Let’s say you trip getting off the elevator and drop your coffee, spilling it everywhere. Your mind may be inclined to think, I’m such an idiot! Why am I always so clumsy? Now, pretend your brain is a bully that just said the same thing about your friend (who happens to be exactly like you.) Hey, people trip sometimes. That doesn’t make them clumsy, let alone always clumsy.

3 Try a little mindfulness.

Have you ever noticed something about negative thinking? It always seems to involve either ruminating about things in the past (I really messed up by forgetting about that important meeting last week.) or catastrophizing about the future (Now everyone’s going to think I’m a total slacker.) Draw your mind away from all that by practicing a little mindfulness.

Start by noticing what’s happening around you. Notice the in and out of your breathing. Feel the air moving around you. Take in the smells. If you’re walking, pay attention to your gait and how your feet strike the pavement. If you’re typing, feel your fingers on the keyboard and listen to the sounds you make pressing the keys. It may seem simple, but mindfulness is powerful. It gets our heads out of the past and future and into the present moment.

It’s not as difficult as it may seem to start the week on a positive note. Just a small shift in your behaviors and habits will make a world of difference.