Possessives

Hello John_walker90,

Although both sentences contain the verb 'have', the function of in each sentence is different.

In the sentence 'He hasn't worked' have is used as an auxiliary verb to form the present perfect (have + past participle). To form the negative of verb forms with auxiliary verbs we always attach the negative 'not' to the auxiliary:

He has worked > He hasn't worked

She is coming > She isn't coming

We will go > We won't go

 

In the sentence 'He doesn't have a car' have is the main verb with the meaning of possession or ownership, not an auxiliary verb. When we construct negatives with main verbs we add the auxiliary do in the appropriate form:

He has a car > He doesn't have a car

She lived there > She didn't live there

I write every morning > I don't write every morning

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Nessie1979,

It should be Granollers' facilities or Granollers's facilities (both are acceptable spellings when the noun ends in -s, but I think the first one is more common). 

However, with cities, it's also common to phrase it like this: the facilities in Granollers.

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi zppp1611,

Both are correct, but most people would use the first one, I think :)

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello SaraZaber,

I'm not sure where you got that rule! It's perfectly fine to use apostrophes with both animate and inanimate nouns to form possessives:

My brother's dog is a Labrador. [animate / living]

My house's roof is leaking. [inanimate / non-living]

 

Sometimes we can form a compound noun using two nouns together:

the car door

the city limits

the school building

 

You could use 'school name' but it would be more likely in the context of talking about the name in general terms (as a concept) rather than a specific example:

I don't like my school's name. [specific example]

It's important to choose a good school name for marketing purposes. [general]

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello saka2005,

I assume you're talking about the use of contractions such as you're (you are), he's (he is), they've (they have) and so on. In writing, contractions are informal but that doesn't mean we should avoid them. Often, and informal style is appropriate, especially when we know the other person well or when the context is informal, such as on an internet forum! It's a question of knowing your audience and their expectations. Being very formal can also be an error in some situations.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Magnus,

1. Yes, this sentence is grammatically correct, though a comma is needed before 'who'. It's slightly awkward, but not unnatural, and I think is the best way to express all of these ideas in one sentence without a semi-colon (see my comments on 3 below).

2. Yes, the possessive 's is more natural, but this sentence doesn't work for the reason you mention -- its object makes the antecedent of the relative pronoun 'who' unclear.

3. This sentence is correct and natural. If you wanted to add in the information about him being a teacher, you could add a semi-colon and another clause: 'The article deals with Joshua's immigration from Jamaica to England; Joshua is a teacher.'

Assuming that this sentence occurs in a larger context, though, I think a more elegant solution would be to have either his name or his profession appear in another sentence. For example, 'The article deals with Joshua's immigration to England. Feeling a desire to teach children in a large city, he decided to move from his native Jamaica to London.'

Hope that helps.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Samin,

Concrete nouns are generally things that can be perceived by one of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste or smell). Abstract nouns are ideas or concepts which exist in the mind. Note that concrete nouns do not have to be real: unicorn, dragon and the Starship Enterprise are all concrete nouns.

I would say that all of your examples are concrete nouns, though in certain contexts some could be used as abstract nouns.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Yigido,

It's a good question :) The short answer to your question is yes - we can use the possessive 's for things. However, the situation is a bit complicated, and it depends on what the thing is and the context of use.

 

As you mentioned, books often teach that the possessive 's cannot be used for things. But, this is only a general pattern, not a strict grammatical rule. Words about places and countries often use the possessive 's, and so do words about companies or institutions, and words about time.

• the country's government
• France's most famous building
• Apple's CEO
• the university's reputation
• today's schedule
• tomorrow's weather

 

It's true that for physical objects, people tend not to use the possessive 's. People more commonly say, for example: 

• the car door or the door of the car (instead of the car's door)
• the bottle top or the top of the bottle (instead of the bottle's top)

Your example of the notebook's cover is another example of this. I would probably say the cover of the notebook here. But it's important to realise that even though using the possessive 's is less common, it's not impossible, and you might hear or see these forms being occasionally used.

 

In my opinion, using the possessive 's (e.g. the car's door) gives slightly more emphasis to the possessor (i.e. the car). We might use this if we want to maintain focus on the possessor, e.g. We need to repair this car's door, not that car's door. The alternative forms give slightly more emphasis to the thing that is possessed (i.e. the door in the car door or the door of the car), so we might use this if there's no need to emphasise the possessor, e.g. We need to repair the car door, not the window.

Does that make sense?

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi dipakrgandhi,

Thanks for your question. We don't have a specific section for prepositions at the moment.

First of all, condolences for the loss of your friend.

Your sentence ending with at is a correct sentence. At relates to the noun age earlier in the sentence. 

Traditionally, it is sometimes taught that we should not end a sentence with a preposition, as you mention. However, speakers and writers actually do this very often, especially in everyday language use, so your sentence is perfectly acceptable.

You could rephrase it like this, e.g.: Not an age at which to leave this world. But this sounds rather more formal in style, and is unnecessary for all but the most formal situations.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello dipakrgandhi,

You are correct that it is not the standard way to express this, and your suggestions are much better.

I wouldn't say that there is a grammar rule which explains why your son's formulation is not correct. It's more a case of convention.

You can use of in this way: the fees of the university. When talking about the period which they cover, use for: the fees for the second year.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello NoelBiju17,

If you want to say where a blow fell, then the correct form is 'struck in'. However, you could use by with the sense of next to, if that was your intention.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello InmaLD

Except for the fact that the first forms suggest that Susan has more than one friend, there is no real difference in meaning between the two forms.

Just as you can say 'mi amiga' or 'una amiga mía', but not 'una mi amiga', in English you can say 'my friend' or 'a friend of mine', but not 'a my friend'.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Rafaela1 In general, we use the possessive form when the thing mentioned (for example, here, 'opinions' and 'discussions') 'belongs' in some way to the person or people. It's difficult for me to say anything for sure about the sentence you mention, because I don't completely understand what it refers to, but 'their' before opinions shows that the opinions are the opinions of 'they' (and not other people). As for 'discussions', it's not clear to me which discussions these are, so it's difficult to advise you on that one. If the discussions are discussions that the same people who coordinated their opinions have had, then 'their' is probably correct. I hope this helps you, but if you have any other questions, please let us know. All the best Kirk The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Vidyaarthi,

The sentence is grammatically correct. However, it would be unusual (but not impossible) to have a garden inside a house. Generally the garden is outside the house.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Adya's,

There is no rule for this. However, common sense tells us that multiple examples of possessive 's will make a sentence clumsy, inelegant and possibly hard to follow. It's very unusual to see more than two in a row.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello zenger62,

I don't think there are any contexts in which one of these would be preferred over the other. Neither has any particular stylistic (formal, informal) tone and they can be used interchangeably.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello leonard777,

Thank you for flagging this. We are already aware of some problems with the links on the site leading to the wrong pages and we have asked our technical team to address this.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi leonard777,

As Peter said, we are working on this and apologise for the inconvenience. I'm happy to report, however, that although the links are broken, there is another way to get to these pages -- please try the links below and I think they should work for you:

possessives: nouns
possessives: adjectives
possessives: pronouns
possessives: questions
possessives: reciprocal pronouns

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Yes, absolutely they are the same. Don't doubt. Thanks

Hello Sad,

Both progressive and continuous are used interchangeably in British English. Progressive is the older, more traditional form; continuous has come into use more recently. I'm from the UK and I'm not sure about typical US usage, I'm afraid.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team