What does yours mean?
Yours is the standalone form of the second-person possessive. It identifies something as belonging to, associated with, or the responsibility of the person or people being addressed, without requiring a following noun: “This chair is yours.” The same form can refer to a single addressee or collectively to several people, and it can express possession as well as less literal forms of belonging, such as responsibility for a decision or outcome. Yours is also used in formal letter closings, including “Yours faithfully,” “Yours sincerely,” and “Yours truly,” where it links the closing to the writer as the correspondent. Although the word is fully standard in both British and American English, its letter-closing uses are more formal than its conversational uses. The word is especially useful because it can express possession concisely and emphatically without repeating a noun, while also allowing politeness or warmth through context.
pronounA second-person possessive pronoun indicating that something belongs to, is associated with, or is the responsibility of the person or people being addressed. It also occurs in conventional closings of letters.
- Used to indicate possession, association, or responsibility of the person or people being addressed.
- Used in a conventional letter closing, especially in combinations such as “yours faithfully,” “yours sincerely,” and “yours truly.”
"The keys are yours, so you can let yourself in."
"Is that seat yours, or has someone else taken it?"
"In her letter, she ended the sign-off with “Yours faithfully.”"
Yours does double duty: it can mean “belonging to you” in a sentence and “from your correspondent” at the end of a letter.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of yours
Yours developed in Middle English as a possessive form of the second-person pronoun, using the ending -s with the older possessive form your. The related form your descends from Old English eower, the possessive element used with second-person nouns and pronouns. The modern family that includes your, yourself, and yourselves developed from the same broader second-person pronoun system, while yours became its distinct standalone possessive form.
How yours is actually used
In everyday speech, yours is usually neutral in tone, though it can sound more formal than “this is yours” or “that belongs to you.” Its use in letter closings is distinctly formal, and the appropriate formula varies according to the degree of familiarity between the writer and recipient.
Easily confused with yours
Your is a possessive determiner used before a noun, as in “your car,” whereas yours stands alone as a possessive pronoun.
You're is the contraction of “you are,” while yours is a possessive pronoun.