your

Your is a possessive determiner (also called a possessive adjective) in English. It is placed before a noun to indicate that the noun belongs to the person or people being spoken to. Examples include your book, your house, and your ideas. It covers both singular and plural second-person contexts and does not change for gender or number. It can modify non-human nouns as well, such as your car or your time.

Historically, your derives from Old English and Middle English forms that expressed possession for the second person. The Old English word eower (the genitive form of the second-person pronoun) evolved over time into the modern form your. The development mirrors a general pattern in English where the second-person pronoun and its possessive marker underwent simplification and standardization during the Middle English period.

In modern usage, your is used in attributive position before a noun—your name, your health, your responsibilities. The related independent possessive pronoun yours is used after a linking verb or at the end of a sentence to stand alone, as in Is this book yours? Reflexive forms include yourself and yourselves, though they are used when the subject acts on itself.

Common pitfalls include confusing your with you're, the contraction of you are, and ensuring you use your before a noun rather than as a standalone pronoun. Together with yours and yourself, your remains a central part of expressing personal possession in contemporary English.