He took his share and gave them …

Analyze the question The sentence is: "He took his share and gave them __." We need the word that correctly completes it. This is a test of possessive pronouns vs. possessive adjectives vs. homophones.

Explain the concept

• Their is a possessive adjective. It must come before a noun (their share, their books). It cannot stand alone.
• There's is a contraction of "there is" or "there has". It doesn't fit here.
• There is an adverb of place (over there).
• Theirs is a possessive pronoun. It replaces "their + noun" and stands alone (The books are theirs).

Show the solution

1. "He took his share" means he took what belonged to him.
2. "and gave them __" means he gave them what belonged to them, which is their share.
3. Since "share" has already been mentioned, we avoid repeating it by using a possessive pronoun that stands alone: theirs (= their share).

Full sentence: He took his share and gave them theirs.

Checking the others:

• A. "gave them their" is incomplete, because "their" needs a noun after it.
• B. "gave them there's" means "gave them there is", which makes no sense.
• C. "gave them there" is incomplete and has the wrong meaning.

Answer: D. theirs

Tip: If the blank has no noun after it, use a possessive pronoun (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs). If a noun follows, use the possessive adjective (my, your, his, her, our, their). Also, possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe, so "their's" and "there's" are traps.