My best friend of the moment - 'Essential Grammar in Use' for elementary students by Raymond Murphy - says that 'we normally use -'s for people.'
I stayed at my sister's house. (not the house of my sister).
Then, bellow in the same unit (64) says that 'we use of... for things, places, etc.'
Look at the roof of that building. (not that building's roof)
After that I thought:
Finally!!! I understand the rules for apostrophes!!!
But soon I lost all that naif excitement when I saw other written examples on the internet that were not following those 'rules'.
I've learnt that we can apply apostrophes to time expressions...
one year's pay
and, finally, amazingly enough ... to singular and plural nouns, which means ANY kind of nouns (I deduce uncountable nouns are also part of the possibilities).
This demolishes what is said in the grammar. So, it seems that eventually:
That building's roof -> is valid
So, now I need your help.
1) Can you tell me the rules concerning the apostrophe to show possession in respect to its usage with nouns? Can we really apply to all kind of nouns? e.g. teeth's, vehicle's, Paula's, forest's, manager's, Ireland's, etc
Scotland's worst drivers
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2) Is there a sense that justifies what is written in the grammar: 'we normally use -'s for people'? or it does not make sense at all?