Close menu
2

Unit 2: English In A Minute
Give us a minute and we'll teach you English

Select a unit

  1. 1 English In A Minute
  2. 2 English In A Minute
  3. 3 English In A Minute

Session 43

Have you ever wondered how to use 'my own' and 'on my own'? Watch Sam explain in this English In A Minute.

Sessions in this unit

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465666768697071

Session 43 score

0 / 3

  • 0 / 3
    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

'My own' vs 'on my own'

Let Sam teach you the difference between 'my own' vs 'on my own' in this English In A Minute.

Watch the video and complete the activity

Show transcript Hide transcript

Sam

My own and on my own – what difference does the little preposition on make? Quite a lot! Let’s look together.

My own or your own after a verb means that we do something to or for ourselves instead of somebody else doing it to or for us.

I like the idea of growing my own vegetables.
Have you ever cut your own hair?

Obviously, you can change my or your for any other possessive adjective.

My own or on your own means exactly the same as alone.

I don’t think I could live on my own.
Have you ever been on holiday on your own?

Again, you can change my or your for any other possessive adjective.

In these cases, you could also say by myself or by yourself using the reflexive pronoun with exactly the same meaning!

Have you ever cut your own hair?

 

 

 

My own vs on my own

My own or your own after a verb means that we do something to or for ourselves.

  • I make my own dinner everyday.
  • Can you make your own decision, please?

On my own or on your own means exactly the same as alone.

  • I think she likes spending time on her own.
  • He lives on his own.

By myself or by yourself has a similar meaning to on my own or on your own.

  • I think she likes spending time by herself.
  • He lives by himself.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

English In A Minute Quiz

3 Questions

Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!

Congratulations you completed the Quiz
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
x / y

Downloads

You can download a PDF document for this episode here.

More

We hope you enjoyed English in a Minute. You can find more episodes here. 

Download centre

Latest course content