A friend of his, hers, theirs, etc

Hi guys,

English students usually have troubles with possessive pronouns. Especially when they are talking about " a friend of someone".
I hear quite often people saying : " He's a friend of him." " He's a friend of her" and so on...

Here's the right way of saying it:

My friend - a friend of mine
Your friend - a friend of yours
Her friend - a friend of hers
His friend - a friend of his
Its friend - a friend of its
Our friend - a friend of ours
Their friend - a friend of theirs


I hope you guys like it! ;)

ENTENDENDO AS HORAS EM INGLÊS
Nesta aula, a professora Camila Oliveira ensina vários macetes para você nunca mais se confundir na hora de dizer as horas em inglês. ACESSAR AULA
1 resposta
Henry Cunha 3 18 190
And, by extension,

In the singular:

one of John's friends - a friend of John's
one of Mary's friends - a friend of Mary's

A friend of John's took us out. = Um amigo do John nos levou para sair.

In the plural :

one of the Watts' friends - a friend of the Watts'
one of the Fergusons' friends - a friend of the Fergusons'

Why do you need the apostrophe? Look at the difference in meaning:

a picture of the Watts = uma foto dos Watts (eles aparecem na foto)
a picture of the Watts' = uma foto que pertence aos Watts

A picture of the Watts showed all of them except the father. (tells us who is in the picture, but not who owns the picture)
A picture of the Watts' showed the street where they lived. (tells us who owns the picture and what's in it)