Think of 2 examples that illustrate the rule: An adjective in front of a specifying possessive only describes the noun immediately following it.
Marion washed the older children’s clothes in the machine. (= the children are older) Marion washed the children’s older clothes in the machine. (= the clothes
Answer. Is the double possessive common with pronouns?
Yes, it is. We always use the possessive pronoun: ✗ She’s a friend of us. ✓ She’s a friend of ours. (= We have several friends. She is one of them)
True or False. Classifying and specifying possessives are the same.
False. Classifying possessives describe the type of thing something is. They answer the question ‘What kind of…?’ and are similar to compound nouns
Answer. What do specifying possessives show?
A relationship with something specific such as a person or place: Marion washes the children’s clothes on Thursdays. (Whose clothes?)
True or False. We can use a double possessive – noun + of + noun (with possessive ’s) – to show that the fi rst noun means ‘one of several’.
True. I heard the story from a friend of my brother’s. (= one of my brother’s friends)
Think of 1 example that illustrates the rule: Classifying possessives describe the type of thing something is. They answer the question ‘What kind of…?’ and are similar to compound nouns
Janice has opened a shop specialising in children’s clothes. (= clothes any children can wear)
Answer. What does an adjective in front of a classifying possessive describe?
An adjective describes the whole phrase: Janice’s shop had a large selection of expensive children’s clothes. (= The clothes are expencive)
Answer. When the nouns do not form a single group, how must we use ’s?
We must use ’s with both nouns: Schrodinger’s and Heisenberg’s versions of quantum mechanics had seemed different. (two versions of the theory)
Complete the sentence. If the possessive noun is part of a prepositional phrase, we usually put the ’s ...
... at the end of the phrase: ✗ The woman’s in the corner baby began to cry. ✓ The woman in the corner’s baby began to cry.
Complete the sentence. If the possessive form consists of a compound noun or two or more nouns which form a single team or group, we add the 's to ...
We add the ’s to the last noun only: Are you coming to my brother-in-law’s party? (compound noun) I’m a great fan of Lerner and Lowe’s musicals. (They both wrot
True or False? We can have two possessive ’s forms together
True! We’re fed up with our neighbour’s tenant’s loud music
Your experience on this site will be improved by allowing cookies.