Questions tagged [double-possessives]
For questions about using two different possessive markers, like “of Bob’s” or “of mine”. Also known as 'double genitives' or 'oblique genitives'.
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If "some books of Jane’s" and "that dog of John's" are correct, why is "a car of my friend's" not correct?
As the following examples show, if Y possesses X we can use the double possessive "X of Y's".
an example from merriam-webster.com:
(1) It had long been a dream of Mabel's to win the baking ...
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If "a car of my friend" is incorrect, does this mean that "a car of one of my friends" is incorrect too?
As far as I know:
(1) my friend's car - correct
(2) a car of my friend's - correct
(3) a car of my friend - incorrect
I'm curious about whether the correctness will remain the same if I add "one ...
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"An idea of the boss's" is correct. Therefore, "nationality of the boss's" and "a death of the boss's" are correct too, right?
The question is about when it's possible to use the double possessive "X of Y's" if "X" is an abstract noun.
As far as I know:
(1a) an idea of the boss — correct
(1b) an idea of ...
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I had seriously considered telling the story from the point of view of the wives
I had seriously considered telling the story from the point of view of the wives.
the point of view of the wives or
the point of view of the wives'
Which one is appropriate in terms of grammar or ...
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Repeated possessive (ex. 'of mine,' or 'of Trump's')
Mr. Brooks, a hard-right Republican and a once-fierce ally of Mr. Trump’s whom the former president has accused of becoming “woke,” has drawn intense scrutiny for his actions preceding the violence on ...
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“Office of the director” or “Director’s Office”?
I learn English for years and this is something I don’t understand completely.
In my natural language, If I want to say, for example, that an office belongs to a director, I say, “escritório do ...
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actors' or actor's?
Following text excerpt:
…it would have been important to work with real-life photographs of
the actors' faces and to…
Is actors', in this case, correct? – Or should it be:
…it would have been ...
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"The friend of John who I hate" vs "John's friend who I hate" [duplicate]
On another language forum, I was told that sentences like,
This is John's friend who I hate.
This is my car which I've had for two years.
etc. are wrong and we should say these instead:
This is ...
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Double possessive case [duplicate]
I am studying the possessive case from here.
The page explains there is also a double possessive, formed by:
owned thing + of + owner + 's
The first case is an indeterminative article:
This is a ...
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"That's your only friend that I've ever met." Why is this an impossible sentence?
I read the following usage note in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language's entry for "of":
Grammarians have sometimes condemned categorically the so-called double ...
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Do a demonstrative and a possessive pronoun make it offensive (if so, what is the alternative)?
In a Japanese Language question, I was informed that English construction such as
That son of yours
These cats of hers
would have an extra offensive connotation outside of a neutral combination of ...
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The bike of Tom or the bike of Tom's - questions about possessives
I wonder which expression is correct in my examples. I know the better way to say them is "Tom's bike" and "Tom's home", but I am still curious about the form in the examples as it is quite common in ...
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Am I correct about possessives?
1 When you say about a bird in general, you say "This is a feather of a bird", you can also say "This is a bird's feather".
a. So when you say "These are feathers of a bird", so will you say "These ...
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Can you help me explain this?
1 When I say "This is a pig's trough.", so is the word "a" describing or attached to "pig" or "trough"?
2 When I say "This is the pigs' trough.", so is the word "the" describing or attached to "pigs" ...
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Double Possessive - two friends of hers
The train arrived at the station, and Paula got off. Two friends of hers, Jon and Rachel, were waiting to meet her.
I understand why I should say 'a friend of hers' instead of 'her a friend'. But ...
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It's a car of my father's friend's
I read that we really could use the double possession like
It's a car of my father's
But somewhy we can't say:
It's a car of my father's friend's
Like, the triple possession? Is it true or we ...
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It's a book of my mother's
If we say:
It's a book of my mother's
How could this sentence be identified? Wrong, archaic, formal or something else?
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“Your face looks like my sister's friend face” or “my sister's friend”?
Which sentence should I use to show that she has the same face and should I use feature instead of face?
"Your face looks like my sister's friend face"
or just
"Your face looks like my sister'...
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"our important customer" vs. "important customer of ours"
Any difference between:
"He is an important customer of ours"
and:
"He is our important customer"
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40 percent of X's Y: Is the percentage about X or Y?
Some 40 percent of people's "first memory" happened at an age when it wasn't possible to create memories.
Source
Context shows the percentage is about the people. The word memory, being singular, ...
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possessive ('s) used in the word "family"
Which of the following sentences is correct?
He's a friend of my family.
He's a friend of my family's.
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"Of someboy's" vs "of somebody."
I'm not a native English speaker so I wanted to ask about something that I always hear being said.
The thing of somebody's.
Is this right? Shouldn't it be this way?
Somebody's thing.
Or
The ...
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Difficulties for Objects' Possessions (or Objects Prossession? What about Possessions of Objects?) [duplicate]
Well, as it is guessable from the title of the question, I have issues with possessions in general and for objects possession in particular.
Here is my main concern, hope to get durable solutions:
...
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It's a question of the TOEIC test [closed]
Which is the correct answer?
The president of Girou Electronics stated that the financial performance of the company was a personal responsibility of ...
his
himself
he
him
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Double possessives
I am confused with one question. I've been self-studying English for several time. But I've thought about does possessives have sneaky apects. Some days ago I faced with double possessive so I made ...
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Translating future statements
I've translated the next sentences:
A brother of my friend's will have finished university by the summer and he is looking forward to teaching at school.
Tomorrow he'll be working all the day and we'...
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Why is "son" possessive in "I should rather say a very particular friend of your son's."?
"I should rather say a very particular friend of your son's."
Not "of your son"? Why should I use possessive case in this statement?
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the wife of the king of the Island or island king's wife?
How can I rewrite this sentence?
1- He gave a letter to the wife of the king of the Island.
I can think of:
2- He gave a letter to the island king's wife.
3- He gave a letter to ...
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What is the main noun in "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence?
I wonder which noun in the phrase "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence is the main noun of the phrase. If "a year's worth" is the main noun, then "of learning" should be a phrase ...
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Use of possessive case in a disjunction
what is the correct form?
This
It will be a pain to manage renewals without an automatic charge on your's or your customer's credit card.
or this
It will be a pain to manage renewals without ...
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The meaning of "this heart of mine"
I was wondering about difference between "my" and "of mine" and have found some posts that say:
"my" is definite form and "of mine" is indefinite one. So, "of mine" is the same as "one of my". ...
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Which one sounds better? "of mine" or "my"
My friend (or "a friend of mine"?) told me that anytime I need to express such expression, it's always better to say "of mine", because it sounds more naturally.
Like "two brothers of mine" rather ...
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Differences between "my sister's house"/"the house of my sister"/"a house of my sister's"
1. My sister's house
2. The house of my sister.
3. A house of my sister's.
Am I right when assuming that the phrase 1 and 2 indicate that my sister owns or lives just in one house whilst the third ...
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How do "Friend of P" and "Friend of P's" mean the inverse of each other?
I abbreviated Peter as P in the title for brevity; feel free to abbreviate thus. Please explain user Ed Staub's answer below, since it only seems to present this stance? To me, both 1 and 2 mean that ...
user8712
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Send me a picture of hers vs Send me a picture of her? Send me a picture of him vs send me a picure of his? [duplicate]
What exactly is happening? Hers and His sound correct; but why?
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Should I use " European Union's " or "European Union"?
Here are my constructions:
As I said, I am present in territory of the European Union's ,
therefore, please contact me only via e-mail at [email address].
As I said, I am present in ...
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Why say "of x's" instead of "of x"?
I have often heard people say "x of his" or "x of mine". But since his and mine point out ownership, isn't using "of" here doubles that ownership? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say "x of him" or "...
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