I am a new member to the Forum. i have now reached Challenge 22 and have been sailing along quite nicely until I reached the possessives. The way in which possessives cause mutations is a real problem for me and I freeze when asked to say “your mother” or “my father”. Do any of you have the same problem? i think it needs a bit more explanation than we get, although I have now had a helpful reply from Deborah.
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Welcome Bryan 
The reason mutations aren’t explained is that the brain would be trying to dig out the ‘explanation’ instead of focusing on what the blocks of words containing them sound like, and that pause to remember the ‘rules’ actually slows down the learning-to-speak process.
They will begin to make sense and slot in naturally over time, but the thing to remember is not to get hung up on them - if you miss a mutation out or use the wrong one, it’s not a huge deal at this stage.
When you’re asked for a phrase containing a possessive, say whatever comes to your head first, don’t think too much about it - the freeze comes when you overthink it, so just give it your best shot
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Hi @bryanstevens,
Siaron has given you a great explanation here. Just to add, often native speakers don’t get them spot on, no one really minds. There’s a running joke about how to spot a Welsh speaker from Cardiff, they don’t treiglo!
What I’m trying to say is, don’t worry about it! If you miss it, just keep going!
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I know it hard to believe right now but eventually the mutations become natural. For instance my wife is called Cathy and when talking about her for instance “me and Cathy went shopping” I accidently say “a Chathy”.
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Many thanks for all your helpful replies and encouragement. I think it will comer in the end, even thoughj ~I’m not qwuite tyhere yet!