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Questions tagged [possessives]

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for questions about words and word forms used to indicate ownership, belonging, or a similar relationship.

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"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/...
azz's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
104 views

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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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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2 answers
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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 ...
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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 ...
An IELTS Learner's user avatar
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-1 votes
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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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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 ...
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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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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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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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3 answers
288 views

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 ...
Jin Kwon's user avatar
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2 answers
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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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If I refer to an artist, of whom I don’t know the gender, may I use the possessive its?
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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 ...
dopel's user avatar
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-3 votes
3 answers
149 views

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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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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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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3 answers
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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 ...
dwi ardianto's user avatar
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1 answer
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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 ...
JMGN's user avatar
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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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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 ...
An IELTS Learner's user avatar
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12 votes
4 answers
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I came across this New York Times headline: University of Texas Basketball Coach Faces Felony Domestic Assault Charge Shouldn't there be a ('s) in this construction like, "University of Texas's ...
thralho thakles's user avatar
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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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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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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"?
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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. ...
Johan Falkenjack's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
231 views

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 ...
hwkal's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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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 ...
Lerner Zhang's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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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) / ...
hwkal's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
110 views

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?
Loviii's user avatar
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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
Yaalan appa's user avatar
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12 votes
6 answers
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Is this sentence correct? This is John's car, a friend of mine. Or do I need to say this? This is John, my friend's car.
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3 votes
1 answer
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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 ...
mat.hudak's user avatar
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3 votes
5 answers
4k views

‘I want to meet your enemy’ can mean?: You are not an enemy You are an enemy (like ‘your majesty’ means you are a majesty)
antonym223's user avatar
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18 votes
8 answers
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An English teacher made a comment on my usage of the phrase, "Our last week's meeting", saying that it should be, "last week's meeting", is there a rule for this?
Pavel Orekhov's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is there any difference between these two sentences? Which is the appropriate sentence to use? A student misbehaving with his teachers is so disrespectful. A student's misbehaving with his teachers ...
Sahil Laskar's user avatar
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1 vote
4 answers
328 views

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 ...
Real Dreams's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
4k views

I learn English for years and this is something I don’t understand completely. In my natural language, If I want to say, for example, that an office belongs to a director, I say, “escritório do ...
Duck's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
218 views

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 ...
LcSalazar's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
49 views

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 ...
user1425's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
71 views

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.
Shoes's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
4k views

I know all the pronunciation rules for the plural -s endings. After a voiced sound, it is z, after an unvoiced one it is s, after s, sh, ch it is iz. In phonetic notation, respectively, /z/, /s/, /ɪz/....
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
326 views

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?
tryingtobeastoic's user avatar
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6 votes
4 answers
999 views

Why do we say in English things like a Facebook post, an AWS service, the Silicon Valley, etc.? In Portuguese, we would say "A post of Facebook", "a service of AWS", and "the ...
m26a's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
69 views

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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0 votes
2 answers
92 views

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 ...
user1425's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
160 views

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 ...
Loviii's user avatar
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26 votes
5 answers
276k views

Is correct to say "my question is" or "mine question is". When I talk, I automatically use "my question is", but "mine" is a possessive pronoun and somehow when I think about it (and translate it ...
Dantes's user avatar
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41 votes
8 answers
20k views

How do I say something like "my company," "my plane," "my bus", etc. without making it sound like I own the company/plane/bus/etc? "Our company" makes it seem like both me and the person/people I'm ...
clickbait's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
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I know that: (1) in two weeks' time - correct (2) in two-week time - incorrect But I don't know what will be without "in". For example (my own sentences): (3) Two weeks' time is enough for a ...
Loviii's user avatar
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