Possessives

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. I've got one question. Is this title correct? 'The Saint Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians' Or: ' The Epistle of Saint Apostle to the Ephesians'. As far as I can remember, we use possessive 's for people. But there are some cases in which we can use 'of'... Also, I thought that I could use some synonims: disciple=apostle; epistle=letter. Which is the appropriate title when it comes to academic writing? Thank you.

Hi Marua,

There are different ways of referring to this book, including 'The Epistle to the Ephesians' or simply 'Ephesians'. I'm not very knowledgeable about the Bible, but when referring to Paul, what sounds natural to me is 'Saint Paul', 'Paul the Apostle' or 'the Apostle Paul' -- I think it's unusual to combine 'saint' and 'apostle' in the same title, though I may be wrong about that.

You're right in thinking that the possessive 's is usually used to refer to possessions, relationships and physical characteristics of people or animals, though we also use it with words that refer to groups of people (e.g. 'government' and countries). There are many exceptions to this rule, however, and when the noun phrases involved are complex, sometimes 'of' is used instead of 's.

In this case, I'd probably just say 'Epistle to the Ephesians', but if I wanted to include Paul, I'd probably say 'Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians'.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

hi, I still cannot access the various sections of this page. Will it be fixed soon? Thanks

Hi gibology,

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm afraid we haven't been able to fix it yet. I assure you we are working on it; in the meantime, you might want to look at the Grammar videos on LearnEnglish Teens or the Grammar section of the Cambridge Dictionary.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

I can't view any lesson about the possessives case

Hello montseta,

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

I have a question and please answer it. "Family" means wife or husband, children including adopted children, step children and parents living with the government servant. Parents in the definition of family above will include only such parents whose monthly income does not exceed rupees 5000. In the above sentence does it mean monthly income of individual parent or monthly income of both the parents in aggregation.

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

Hello, I can't view any article of possessives pronouns lession What happend ?

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, I have a question. If someone asks "What type of food does your cat eat?" Which sentence will be right? A.- It eats cat food. B.- It eats cat's food. Thank you in advance.

Hello Gema Konka,

The first sentence is correct.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you!

Sir, There is something going on in the house next to ours or our house ? I think both the opinions are available here as to which we choose 'ours or our house' right?

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 a proposition can come before a question word. for example : 1. which warehouse were the goods stored in? = in which warehouse were the goods stored? or 2. who did you obtain the information from= from whom you obtain the information? and I know we do this because it is more formal but for "what about" and looking for" is not the same. for example, if we say : 3. "about what are you worrying?" instead of "what are you worrying about?" 4. "for what are you looking?" instead of "what are you looking for?" these are incorrect. I want to know why we can not use this rules for the example number 3 and 4 and I want to know are there anymore? thank you in advance

Hi ihsan_qwerty,

You are correct that sentences like the following are not used in standard English:

About what are you worrying?

For what are you looking?

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

thank you so much. you and your friends are excellent. I wish you best

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Possessives