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.
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hello everyone good afternoon, possessive pronouns help us improve the way we refer to something as ours, simply with the help of the 's or s'. Normally, people who do not know or are learning English, think of the sentence in Spanish and in the same way they believe that it is written in English.
Hello, I have heard a few years back that the use of the apostrophe is rather informal and should be avoided when possible. Can you please confirm if this is accurate?
Thanks!
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
Good morning,
I have got a question concerning the possessives with -of or 's in connection with a relative clause. I would be grateful if you could send me a feedback on the following three sentences:
1. The article deals with the immigration to England of Joshua who is a teacher from Jamaica.
This sentence seems grammatically correct, but does it sound natural? Is the sentence structure ok or would it be better to say "the immigration of Joshua to England"? Would the relative clause still fit then?
2. The article deals with Joshua’s immigration to England who is a teacher from Jamaica.
In this case the possessive -s probably works better (the noun [possessing] is a person), but the relative pronoun ‘who’ does not clearly refer back to Joshua so that the relative clause would be grammatically wrong.
3. The article deals with Joshua’s immigration from Jamaica to England.
The information that he is a teacher is left out (can it be included somehow?). Does the possessive -s sound more idiomatic than ‘the immigration to England of Joshua'?
Thank you for your help which has always been very useful.
Best,
Magnus
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
Thanks a lot for this detailed and helpful reply (as usual)!
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.
It's true that for physical objects, people tend not to use the possessive 's. People more commonly say, for example:
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
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
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
Hello roc1,
Both sentences are grammatically correct but there is s difference in meaning.
I saw them do it yesterday
This means that you saw the whole action to completion.
I saw them doing it yesterday
This means that you saw the action in progress (after it had begun but before it ended) but did not necessarily see the end.
Thus, if I say I saw them painting the kitchen then it is not clear if the work is finished. If I say I saw them paint the kitchen then I saw them finish the job.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nabul,
There is no problem that I am aware of. Are you having trouble accessing the site?
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
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 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
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