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domenica 16 ottobre 2011

The English Possessive ("Saxon genitive")

In English language teaching, the term "Saxon genitive" is used to associate
the possessive use of the apostrophe (" 's ") 
The Saxon genitive is one of the ways in modern English of forming a 
genitive construction, along with the preposition "of". 
 
The possessive case is used to show ownership. 
example: 
Luca's blog. 
 
In general, we can say that we use the genitive case (‘s) when the possessor is a 
person or an animal. If not, we use the "of-construction": "The blog of Luca."
 
examples: 
- Luca's blog
- Marta's pen
- Marcelo's photos 
- The kids’ bikes
- The children’s bikes
- The boy’s bike 
 
As we can see from the examples above, if we have a plural form ending in -s
we add only the apostrophe, as in the first example: boy is singular, so we add ‘s
as has been seen in the previous section.
 
  • Exception:
    children is plural, but it does not end in -s
    If, like in this case, we have a plural form ending in -s
    we add only the apostrophe: 
    examples: 
    - The children's toys.
    - The members' hall.
    - The families' houses.
     
    It is good to remember:
    
    

Personal Pronoun/Determiner

Possessive
Lynne's
Lynne's
My
Mine
Your
Yours
His
His
Her
Hers
Its
Its
Our
Ours
Their
Theirs
Whose
Whose

For example:
- This is Luca's blog. It's my blog!. It's mine!
- It's not Matt's blog. It's not his blog. It's not his. 
- Have you seen her keys? They're her keys. They're hers.
 
You should still use the genetive case when talking about things that belong to other things.

examples:
- The door of the car.
- The content of the website. 
- The top of the page. Best Blogger Tips

2 commenti:

  1. I'm a native English speaker from the USA and the avoidance of the Saxon genitive seems laughable.

    The proper way to say your examples would be derided in everyday speech. The correct ways to say them would be:

    The car door.
    The website's content.
    The top of the page. (correct)

    RispondiElimina
  2. I'm a native English speaker from the USA and the avoidance of the Saxon genitive seems laughable.

    The proper way to say your examples would be derided in everyday speech. The correct ways to say them would be:

    The car door.
    The website's content.
    The top of the page. (correct)

    RispondiElimina