Questions tagged [possessives]
for questions about words and word forms used to indicate ownership, belonging, or a similar relationship.
718 questions
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in others' eyes
"I have seen a trace of strain
In other's eyes, not spoken"
From the song: "The Sea Refuses No River" by Pete Townshend.
Source:
https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/...
6
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1
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Possessive “ ’s ” with days in a week: “Monday trip” vs “Monday’s trip”
When should I use ’s when using days in a week like Monday, Tuesday, and so on when these are used attributively in front of other nouns?
I don’t like Monday trips. Does this say that trips take ...
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3
answers
129
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Tense reference
He objected to the accusations being raised.
What he objects to is: the accusations that were being raised or the proposal that they should be raised?
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131
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Possesive apostrophe VS "of" when the modifying noun is inanimate. (an art gallery’s ground floor VS the ground floor of an art gallery)
I was writing an essay describing the floor plan of an art gallery a few months ago. When I wrote:
The diagrams compare the layout of an art gallery’s ground floor as it was in 2015 with its current ...
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2
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160
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"the river's outlet to the sea" — Why is the possessive case correct here?
britannica.com:
(1) the river's outlet to the sea
What rule allows the use of the possessive case in this specific example?
my variant:
(2) the river outlet to the sea
What's the difference between (1)...
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2
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96
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Can possessive pronouns take the saxon genitive (i.e., "mine's")?
In a sentence like "My friend's grandfather's life was probably easier than mine's", is "mine's" a correct replacement for "my granfather's life", or do I really need to ...
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2
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When a foreign name takes the possessive, does it "always" follow English pronunciation? [closed]
So I was asking this question on ChatGPT
How to pronounce Bézout's Identity?
Since Bézout is a French name, I expected it sounded like "BAY-zoos" (the silent t in French), but the AI told ...
11
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2
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Why "camera matrix" and not "camera's matrix"?
I work in software development. In computer vision, a camera matrix is something that describes the mapping of 3D points to 2D image points (see this).
A colleague of mine suggests that it should be ...
3
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2
answers
382
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An article + a possessive word, is it possible?
We have an article as well as a possessive word in the following sentence:
"They were heading for an antiglobalists' tent camp in a Madrid
suburb".
However, according to Swan (Practical ...
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1
answer
82
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Possessive s with animals [duplicate]
Especially when I hear people talking about animals they sometimes say "cat leg" or cat's leg". What is the differecne? Without possessive s "cat" acts as a noun describing a ...
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2
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Possessive + much + noun
Certain determiners (many, most, little, least, few) can be used after possessive determiners, e.g.,
His/Mom's many friends/ideas.
Is this true of much too? As in
His/one's much money/valor
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2
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Use of its for an Artist of whom I don’t know the gender
If I refer to an artist, of whom I don’t know the gender, may I use the possessive its?
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'Advise', 'allow', 'permit', or 'forbid' + possessive + gerund (-ing)
According to Swan's Practical,
In active clauses after these verbs, we use an -ing form if there
is no object, but with an object infinitives are used instead.
Is it grammatical to use a possessive ...
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3
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The group genitive case in 'Kash Patel declares arrest of [Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton]'s lawyer'
A recent video on Youtube was titled as 'Kash Patel declares arrest of Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton's lawyer'.
Now, how is this sentence supposed to be interpreted?
Kash Patel declares arrest of [...
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2
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London Underground/London's Underground/The London Underground
Is it correct to say:
This is Bangkok Metro.
This is London Underground.
This is New York Subway.
(Without "the" and without possessive 's)
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3
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What does `a couple cans short of a six-pack` mean?
In the movie Terminator, a guy says,
Hey, I think this guy's a couple cans short of a six-pack.
I think I can read Hey through guy's.
Is that 's is short of is? or a possessive expression?
What does ...
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1
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What is the correct possessive plural for the head(s) of multiple people?
The sentence in question is
It rained on the head of James, Steve, and Billy.
To me it sounds like it should be
It rained on the heads of James, Steve, and Billy.
Should there also be an ...
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3
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Use of apostrophe 's: Arne Slot's Reds
I'm a little bit confused by the use of the apostrophe 's in this sentence. Arne Slot is a Liverpool's coach. Does the 's mean "the owner" here? So the sentence reads "Arne Slot is the ...
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2
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When shouldn't I use possessive s?
What should I say? The "island beaches are clean" or "the island's beaches are clean"?
And when shouldn't I use possessives?
Thanks in advance.
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2
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883
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tomorrow morning vs. tomorrow's morning
I found a topic that appeared kind of difficult for me to summarize. What's the key difference between "tomorrow morning" and "tomorrow's morning" or "night sleep" vs. &...
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0
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Possessive 's or just noun + noun?
I'm not a native speaker, and I got confused by some grammar point. I see phrases like 'noun + noun' with the first noun being an attributive more and more often. Sometimes in such cases it seems more ...
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1
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55
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Possessive pronoun or possessive adjective when giving options, only one of which is first-person
I thought that I knew when to use "my" and "mine" respectively. However I was writing an email to ask a someone to visit either me or my colleague at work and now I'm not so sure.
...
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1
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60
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compare A and B's populations VS compare A's and B's populations
Note: A and B are the names of two countries.
Phrase 1: compare A and B's populations
Phrase 2: compare A's and B's populations
Are both phrases correct or is it only the latter?
To my mind, compare ...
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2
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114
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Is there a possesive form of "here" or "there"?
Imagine your house has just been cleaned by a helper. So after the cleaning finished, you check around if everthing was placed properly, and you see that a mat or (a piece of rug) that you normally ...
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1
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110
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"imprisonment for ten years" VS "imprisonment of ten years" VS "ten years' imprisonment"
my own examples:
(1) imprisonment for ten years
(2) imprisonment of ten years
(3) ten years' imprisonment
As far as I understand, they are all correct.
What's the difference between them?
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1
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49
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parents of either of - them/theirs/them's
Usually a newly-married couple live with either of the parents of
them.
Usually a newly-married couple live with either of the parents of
them's.
Usually a newly-married couple live with either of ...
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1
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117
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“Only vs itself” which one should I use?
Should I use "itself" or "only" when I say I don't have something.
Example:
a. itself: I don't have insta ID itself
b. only: I don't have insta ID only
3
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1
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510
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Determiners (the, a, some) that come before possessives (book's title, government's decision) help determine that Possessive or the noun after it?
The government's decision
A person's job
The children's book
The book's title
let's say, in the first line, what does the determiner (The) point to? "government" or "decision"?
3
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1
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58
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Correct message to notify users about errors in data
I'm working on a map software project and I'm not quite sure how to write a legend entry.
On the map we display various sections consisting of multiple segments. If a segment contains some incorrect ...
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1
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249
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Is "ones" in this sentence grammatical?
I encountered the "ones" functioning as a possessive pronoun in this context:
In the individual, this cultural context is expressed in terms of ones attitudes, beliefs, personality ...
2
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1
answer
332
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"The Bag of My Sister's" vs "The Bag of My Sister" - double possessive
The bag of my sister's
The bag of my sister
The bag of an actress
The bag of an actress's
when do we use and not use Apostrophe + s (for singular, uncountable, and irregular plural nouns) / ...
2
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2
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Syntactic structure of “International Women’s Day”
According to the general rule, in possessive phrases -‘s is placed right between the Possessor Phrase and the Thing-Possessed Phrase.
On the 8th of March one celebrates the International Day of Women. ...
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2
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your many books, Those some people - can we use determiners this way?
I have your many books.
I have many books of yours.
Those some people are about to come.
Some of those people are about to come.
I know that the 2nd version of each example is correct but I don't ...
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1
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71
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"Shiv and Parvati's son" or "Shiv's and Parvati's son"?
I'm writing a story about Lord Ganesh; which of the following is more correct?
Ganesh claimed to be Shiv and Parvati's son.
Ganesh claimed to be Shiv's and Parvati's son.
4
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1
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Which is the correct sentence to use
Writing personalised gift as if from baby with photos of baby + baby's dad.
Would caption read:
"Mine and my daddy's adventures" or
"Mine and daddy's adventures" or
"Me and my ...
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2
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What does ONE modify here?
Last week he visited one of the Americans' conferences.
Does one modify "Americans" or "conferences" or either?
Does it mean: one conference run by the Americans OR conferences run ...
2
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2
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71
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The Double Genitive with Animals?
Can I use the double possessive below as I would in, say, the phrase a friend of Bob’s?
a bone of my dog’s
a toy of my dog’s
Are the phrases above, however awkward, still grammatical? Never mind ...
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0
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If "a car of my friend" is incorrect, does this mean that "a car of one of my friends" is incorrect too?
As far as I know:
(1) my friend's car - correct
(2) a car of my friend's - correct
(3) a car of my friend - incorrect
I'm curious about whether the correctness will remain the same if I add "one ...
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40
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The usage of possessive s
Normaly we would say James's car but is it also acceptable to say for instance the car of James or it sounds just awkward and no one would say that?
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2
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Where to put the apostrophe in a sentence where the name contains an appositive?
If the name in the sentence contains an appostive, does it change the location of the apostrophe?
For example:
John Smith's car is red
Now imagine I have an appostive to that subject that comes ...
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328
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Possessive "‘s" or "of", or neither?
When can you swap the words and remove "of" like "the cafe of the uni" vs "the uni cafe"?
Which one is more natural for everyday English?
the cafe of the uni
the uni ...
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1
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Apostrophe after apostrophe [duplicate]
The artifical inteligence generated this sentence and I got in a double.
Does it make sense to put apostrophes like this: Business Contact’s company's workforce.
It means the workforce of the company ...
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1
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Using double possessives
I've read a number of posts in threads about double possessives.
However, since English is not my first language, I still have trouble understanding it.
Which of the following sentences sounds ...
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1
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Why "solutions" in "here are two solutions key points"?
Here are two boy's cars.
But.
Here are two solutions key points.
Why in first example is "'s" used and in second one it's not?
I checked with LanguageTool and GoogleTranslate. I want to ...
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Possessive word order "English's accommodation spending on holiday reached 55% in 2012"
Is this sentence correct to describe a chart? Sometimes I get confused between using x of x versus x's.
I want to say that the British spent 55% on accommodation on weekend holidays in 2022. Does this ...
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1
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What's the difference between "Spain's fastfood consumption" and "the consumption of fastfood in Spain"? [closed]
I am describing a chart in that chart 22% of Spanish people consumed fast food. Are the two sentences below correct?
Is there a difference between these sentences in meaning?
Spain's fast food ...
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1
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156
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What's the use of the word 's in this sentence
Could you explain how the apostrophe 's works in these sentences? I understand the word 's to show possesive meaning to belong. But it doesn't make sense in this case.
"A huge victory for ...
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Is it possible to make the following noun phrase possessive? a girl in pink's name?
Is it possible to make the following noun phrase possessive?
a girl in pink's name (or a girl's in pink name? or a girl's name wearing pink?)
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What's the correct form: "pets island" or '"pet's island"
I'm trying to write a short paragraph about an animal island and I'm a bit confused as to what would be the correct sentence to use for the title.
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2
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"you and your" vs "your and your"
At one point, you and your teammate's pokemons register a very low HP (1).
At one point, your and your teammate's pokemons register a very low HP (2).
Which of the two sentences is correct?