Possessive form of noun & Saxon Genitive
POSSESSIVE FORM OF NOUNS
Many people have trouble distinguishing between possessive nouns and plural nouns. Possessive nouns demonstrate ownership, while plural nouns indicate more than one person, place, or thing.
WAYS OF FORMULATING:
There are two ways of formulating possessive form of nouns (affiliation):
Noun + ‘s (also known as Saxon Genitive)
We use this form for short descriptions of people and animals:
my brother’s car
the lion’s cage
We use this form for short descriptions of people and animals:
my brother’s car
the lion’s cage
Of + noun / nominal phrases
We use this form for descriptions of objects and terms:
the leg of the table
the power of love
We use this form for longer descriptions of people and animals:
the wife of the man who works with me
the cage of the two tigers
We can use two above forms with nouns expressing place or organization:
the world’s population
the population of the world
the company’s name
the name of the company
The Saxon Genitive may cause troubles with spelling.
Singular and plural forms of nouns which do not end with -s, create the possessive form by adding an ending ‘s:
women’s magazine
Bart’s family
Plural nouns ending with -s require adding apostrophe:
teachers’ room
boys’ mum
Those two forms are correct when writing surnames ending with -s:
Mrs Jones’s husband
Mrs Jones’ husband
THE BUTCHER’S
Some of the possessive nouns may function without a second noun.
These are nouns referring to:
| SHOPS | the butcher’s the florist’s |
| OFFICES, CLINICS | the doctor’s the travel agent’s |
| PEOPLE | t to my mother’s I found her at her parents’ |
