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Questions tagged [possessives]

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for questions about words and word forms used to indicate ownership, belonging, or a similar relationship.

718 questions
Newest Active Bountied Unanswered
41 votes
5 answers
10k views

Does it indicate a possessive adjective or just a plural noun? If noun, why it is not CPUs (without apostrophe)?
aryndin's user avatar
  • 831
41 votes
8 answers
20k views

How do I say something like "my company," "my plane," "my bus", etc. without making it sound like I own the company/plane/bus/etc? "Our company" makes it seem like both me and the person/people I'm ...
clickbait's user avatar
  • 842
29 votes
6 answers
237k views

1) Alex's house 2) Alex' house When the noun ends with the letter 's' or 'x', do I need to put 's' after an apostrophe or not? I remember I read some rules related to this in my school grammar ...
T2E's user avatar
  • 3,902
26 votes
5 answers
276k views

Is correct to say "my question is" or "mine question is". When I talk, I automatically use "my question is", but "mine" is a possessive pronoun and somehow when I think about it (and translate it ...
Dantes's user avatar
  • 363
23 votes
3 answers
47k views

This always nags me... I would prefer a logical as well as a grammatical explanation of it. We enjoyed each other's company. We enjoyed each others' company. Which one is correct? Why is the other ...
Neil D'Silva's user avatar
  • 1,012
22 votes
6 answers
9k views

Anita is Neil's wife. Neil is one of my friends. Now, how do I refer to Anita? Think that I'm telling someone who does not know the couple. One of my friend's wife OR One of my friends' wife I ...
Maulik V's user avatar
  • 66.5k
22 votes
4 answers
5k views

In English, one occasionally sees a replacement of my wife by the wife, such as in this sentence: there was a sudden thud and I joked to the wife that someone had run into us Does this construction ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 4,774
21 votes
4 answers
75k views

My brother's friend's opinions My brothers' friend's opinions Now, let us suppose that the brother in "1" is a brother-in-law and that all the brothers in "2" are brothers-in-law. ...
user avatar
18 votes
8 answers
8k views

An English teacher made a comment on my usage of the phrase, "Our last week's meeting", saying that it should be, "last week's meeting", is there a rule for this?
Pavel Orekhov's user avatar
  • 383
18 votes
2 answers
4k views

I know all the pronunciation rules for the plural -s endings. After a voiced sound, it is z, after an unvoiced one it is s, after s, sh, ch it is iz. In phonetic notation, respectively, /z/, /s/, /ɪz/....
user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
19k views

Why must we add an 's? Why "she is at the dentist's now" instead of "at the dentist"?
dr_yand's user avatar
  • 271
15 votes
4 answers
3k views

I was pretty confirmed of not using any article before a proper noun that shows possessiveness. The Maulik's car -incorrect Maulik's car -correct But then, I came across this piece of news on ...
Maulik V's user avatar
  • 66.5k
15 votes
7 answers
723 views

I've just been told my current understanding of possessives is ungrammatical, it was noticed in this sentence The iPhone has been the most successfully sold Apple 's product and I was advised to use ...
Oscar's user avatar
  • 564
15 votes
8 answers
4k views

I am firmly convinced he is innocent and his accusation is the result of the police conspiracy. I am firmly convinced he is innocent and his accusation is the result of the police's conspiracy. ...
bart-leby's user avatar
  • 8,693
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

In a sentence where the definite article precedes someone's name, as in this example: The war campaign has boosted the Putin's ratings. could the definite article be used? Would the above example ...
a_hanif's user avatar
  • 501

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