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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Hello! Could some one temme when and where to drop the words 'the' and 'that'. I do have a good reading habit but cant't really figure this out . I Have gone through the articles on the usage of words 'The' and 'that' but the dropping ! thanks

Hello ganeshcharms,

Your question is very general and it's not really possible for us to write long detailed explanations of particular grammar points like this - that is what the grammar pages are for, after all! Perhaps you have a particular example in mind - if you can post an example it would make it much easier to provide really relevant and useful information for you.

Best wishes,

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello sir, I have faced so many interviews but reject in last HR round can you suggest me what are the things HR look in to the candidates apart from communication and confidence .

Hello, Have you seen our series of videos on job interviews in English? http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/youre-hired Best wishes, Adam The LearnEnglish Team

Hi teacher I m Anurag from India, I want to my speaking good in english how can i do this?

Hello Anurag!

That's a big question! Practising your English speaking can be tricky, but here are a few suggestions.

Use the comments section here to practice grammar and vocabulary. It's writing, but still useful.
Try to record yourself. Choose some of the discussion questions from our site or make up your own, and record your answers on your computer or phone. Play back your recording – what mistakes did you make? What do you like about your answer?
Keep listening to our recordings. One of the best ways to improve speaking... is listening!
Finally, remember you don't have to have a native speaker to talk to. Maybe a friend or colleague wants to talk English – ask around, and find someone who wants to practice.

Good luck, and keep working on it!

Jeremy
The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Teacher, Thank you for the grammar lessons.It helped me to improve my English Knoweledge.I Keen to study English further. Regards, Ornella.

Hi everyone, I want to improve my speaking skills. Video chat is better to improve it. And also text message with face book And g+ good to that. So there is any one here who can English help me please. tharindu.

Hello Tharindu lakshan,

It's great that you are so keen to practise your English! However, please remember the House Rules here on LearnEnglish, which ask members not to post or request personal information such as email addresses, Skype names etc. This is because we have members of a range of ages and so must be careful with personal data, as I'm sure you understand.

Best wishes and good luck in your learning,

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

hi peter:) could you please give list of open ended questions for critical thinking thank u

Hello vishukhanna,

Critical thinking is a wonderful habit and I think everyone should have the tools and knowledge to apply it to their lives, but training in criticial thinking is a little beyond the scope of our site here. I can point you in a couple of useful directions, however:

The first place to go is wikipedia, which has a good introduction to the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

For a bit more detail, you might look at this site:

https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

I hope those links are helpful.

Best wishes,

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

thank you! sir ..please tell me how to improve writing skills.

Hello vishukhanna,

To improve your writing, it's important to practice it. Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to give users individualised feedback on their writing, but there are still plenty of ways you can use LearnEnglish to work on your own.

If you're interested in academic writing, see our section called Writing for a Purpose. You can also respond to other users in the comment sections to carry on a written conversation, just as I am responding to you now.

Finally, good writers learn from reading other writers' texts, so you could learn a lot about writing from reading the content on the site. The Magazine might be a great place to start if this interests you.

Best wishes,

Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Oh ! really interesting.

how is life ?!

Good morning every one .How are you?

I' m doing good.How are you?

Please find attached Self Evaluation Report’s of next arrival Doctor’s. plese tell me what i have written is correct or not

Hello shivi1975,

In general, we focus on helping users with content on our website. In any case, I'm afraid I need more information. What is the purpose of this document? I don't understand what the last part (of next arrival Doctor's) is supposed to mean. Could you please explain the title in other words?

Best wishes,

Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hi , good morning every one I'm from Saudi Arabia

Can we say these level of prices has been offered since april...I mean to say that some one has been offering these level of prices since. April

Hello elle12, I think the most natural way to say this would be '.... has offered these prices since April' '.... has been available for (price) [if we are talking about goods in a shop] since April' '.... has been available at (price) [if we are talking about stocks or shares] since April' I hope that helps, Best wishes, Peter The LearnEnglish Team

really great!!!

we can understand easy.clear.thanks British council.srilanka

Hello

Please could you let me know if a file that belongs to Peter is

Peters file

Peter's file

Peters' file

Thanks!

Peter's file. The (') always gets after noum and before the "s".

Hi,

What is the difference between " where were you" and where have you been" I mean in which context we use them?

Thanks in advance

I think that "where were you?" refe to displacement of somepeople and later he return and "where have you been" refer to somepeople that been in someplace that I don't know where.

I think is this! Sorry for some wrong and teach me please! XD

hello every body

Hi,

Can I say" i am hot or cold instead of I feel hot/ cold."

Thanks in advance

You can say both, but 'I am hot' is also used to describe yourself as attractive or very good at something.

Hi,
I have a problem in differentiating between the meaning of apostrophe ('s) that shows possession and modifying nouns. For example: what is the difference between
(Students' Number and Students Number)
I read about them but I couldn't understand the difference well.so, could you please .explain them for me

Thanks in advance

Hello zagrus!

When you use the apostrophe, it tells you something about who owns the noun. When there's no apostrophe, the word before tells you something about the main noun. Your two examples are a little complicated to explain, so let's look at a clearer example:

Student's book: This is a particular book which belongs to a student.

Who does this book belong to?

I don't know, but it must be a student's book - some of the exercises are already done.

Student book: This is what KIND of book

What kind of book is this?

Oh it's a student book - it has exercises, but no answers.

Hope that helps!

Regards

Jeremy Bee

The LearnEnglish Team

:hello, I will be grateful if you answer the following question

which phrase is correct : the stories of Prophets Joseph and Job, or the stories of .Prophet Joseph and Job

and why???

thanks in advance

Hello Zagrus!

The first phrase is correct. This is because ProphetS tells us both Joseph and Job are prophets. In the second one, because Prophet is singular, we read it as only for Joseph - the stories of (Prophet Joseph) and Job - suggesting Job is not a prophet.

Hope that helps!

Regards

Jeremy Bee

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi, can you help me with this ( there is a radio and a sofa.) Is this a correct grammar?

Hello mimi-516!

I answered your question on another page. You're welcome to ask questions, but please choose a good page for it (like, for your question, our page on it and there), and please ask the question only once; don't get impatient if we can't answer it immediately!

Thanks!

Jeremy Bee

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Jeremy, I'm so sorry for that,coz it's my first time to use your page.mimi-516

Hello wonderful Team, thank you for prompt response, last night I read an article, the writer used the word water in plural form, i.e he wrote (waters), now, is it possible to say such expression?

Thanks

Hello Adil,

Happy to help! If you look up 'water' or 'waters' in the dictionary box at the right of this web page, you should find the answer to your question there. Remember to scroll down the page to check all the definitions.

If you're still unclear after reading it, ask us your specific question here.

Best wishes,

Adam

The LearnEnglish Team

(Do ( Abdurrahman is my elder brother) and ( Abdurrahman is my older brother

have the same meaning?

Hello zagrus!

Yes, that's right, but elder is a little old fashioned these days - we're more likely to just say older.

Regards

Jeremy Bee

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi, I have a question, the word information always confuses me, can it be in plural form (informations) or it is only in singular form?

Hello Adil,

'Information' is uncountable, so we don't say '~~informations~~', except in a very specific legal situation that 99.9% of people will never encounter. You can talk about 'pieces of information' etc.

Best wishes,

Adam

The LearnEnglish Team

Idont now

Hello
Could you explain to me what the difference between " each other" and " one another" When I see a sentence about this, I don't decide which one is convenient for the sentence. Thank you so much.

If the subject is singular and the object is plural,how can i use apostrophe?

eg.The boy cars

thank u soo much for those lessons

Hi everyone, I'm Amel from Indonesia. I'm 19. :)

I join here because I want to improve my English. Honestly, I'm so glad I can find a website like this, I can improve my listening skill with Ravi and Tess :).

But, I also want to improve my speaking skill. How to do it here? someone can tell me?

Thanks