Question

Complete the sentence with the best option from those given below.
Ram and Shyam lost _____ way in the woods.
a)His
b)Its
c)Their
d)Theirs

Answer 1

Hint: A pronoun is used to replace a noun in order to avoid repetition.

Complete step by step answer:

As given in the hint, pronouns are used in place of nouns. Personal pronouns are used in one of three persons.

The first person refers to the speaker.

The second person refers to the listener.

The third person refers to the person being spoken of.

Possessive Pronouns are used for showing possession of something by someone. Whenever we talk about the possession of a noun or we witness the repetition of a noun, we tend to replace the noun with a possessive pronoun.
Example- John ate John's bread. (1)
John ate his bread. (2)
We can see the repetition of the noun in (1), but we have replaced the noun with a possessive pronoun in (2) to avoid repetition.
Let’s look at the given options:
a)His- We cannot use his to show possession of two people. His is used to show possession of an individual male. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
b)Its- We do not use ‘it’ for humans but only for animals and inanimate objects. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
c)Their- We can use ‘their’ to show possession of two people in third-person. It is also used as an adjective to modify a noun. Hence, it is the correct option.
d)Theirs- It is not used to directly modify a noun. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
The correct answer is Option ‘c’.

Note: There can be used to lay emphasis on both the subject and the object, whereas theirs is used to lay emphasis on the subject who holds possession of something.