
Possessives are forms that we use to talk about possessions and relationships between things and people. They take different forms depending on how they are used.
Read clear grammar explanations and example sentences to help you understand how possessives are used. Then, put your grammar knowledge into practice by doing the exercises.
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Hi A H Wani,
I'm afraid it's not clear. In other words, it could mean them separately or as an aggregate.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi PhmNgocNghia,
Thanks for telling us about this. Our technical team is trying to fix this section. Hopefully the problem will be solved soon.
We're very sorry for the inconvenience!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Gema Konka,
The first sentence is correct.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SonuKumar,
Both forms are grammatically correct, but 'in the house next to ours' is much more commonly used than 'in the house next to our house' because it is shorter and also unambiguous.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi ihsan_qwerty,
You are correct that sentences like the following are not used in standard English:
However, this is not because they break a grammatical rule. Grammatically speaking, they are perfectly correct. Language is governed by more than just grammatical rules. Convention is also important, which means the standard usage which has grown up over time. There are many examples of linguistic conventions. For example, when someone says to you 'How do you do?' the correct answer is not to answer the question but to say 'How do you do?' in return. In lexis there are also conventions. Thus we say 'salt and pepper' and 'black and white' rather than 'pepper and salt' and 'white and black'. These are not based on rules but on conventions of use. Going against these convention makes your language sound odd, which can be useful for rhetorical effect but is not something to do too often.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team