Can you tell and explain, which one is grammatically correct?
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's her?
or
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's hers?
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Sign up to join this communityThe second is correct, ending in "what is hers?".
I can see why this would be confusing. If the word "excuse" were repeated in the second clause, it would be "what is her excuse?". Perfectly grammatical. But the reality is that "excuse" is not repeated. So her stands on its own, and it must become possessive to represent the missing word "excuse". That is why the example must be worded:
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's hers?
The second one is correct:
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's hers?
Wikipedia, on its page here points out this is a "nominal ellipsis with [a] possessive determiner". In other words, it's an ellipsis.
The full sentence would be:
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's her excuse?
However, when the word excuse is elided, the possessive determiner her becomes the possessive pronoun hers.
As others have explained,
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's hers?
is correct and
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's her?
is incorrect.
"Her" is used correctly in the following sentence:
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's her excuse?
The possesive word "her" is used as a "determiner" in English. Other examples of determiners are the definite article "the" and the indefinite article "a/an".
Some common English determiners, including "her", "the" and "a/an", cannot be the last word in a phrase; they need to be followed by a noun phrase.
When you don't have a particular noun phrase in mind, you have to use a generic noun phrase or a pronoun:
Other possessive words like "her":
These determiners are not only used directly before noun phrases, but also before coordinating conjunctions such as "and" or "or" in constructions with ellipsis where there is a noun phrase further on in the sentence:
"your and my ideas" = "your ideas and my ideas"
"Your ideas and mine" would also be correct, but *"your ideas and my" is incorrect.
But other words can function either as determiners or as complete noun phrases. For example, the demonstratives this, that, these, those are all fine either with a following noun phrase ("Who's that singer?") or no following noun phrase ("Who's that?").
The possessive word "his" can be used both ways.
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's his excuse?
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's his?
(both correct)
So can the possessive of any ordinary noun, like "Mary's".
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's Mary's excuse?
My excuse is that I am a kid, what's Mary's?
(both correct)
BASIC GRAMMAR: Reminder
Nouns=mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs.
These nouns work like any other nouns.
Possessive Adjectives: my book, your book, his book, her book, our book, your book, their book.
Please note: his is the same whether it's a noun or possessive adjective.