Grammar Practice in Context - David Bolton, Noel Goodey 1997
70 Possessive forms: my brother’s car the roof of the house a friend of mine
Quick reference
’s and s’
• We add -s to a singular noun (people and animals) to show that something belongs to someone, the man’s passport Gemma’s mother the dog’s collar the cat’s dinner
• With plural nouns we add an apostrophe (’) after the final my parents’ house
• With plural nouns without a final -s (men, children, etc.) we use the men’s toilets
• With two or more names, we put -’s after the last name. Jenny and Mark’s flat
• We can use the and -s ’ forms on their own when it isn’t necessary to repeat a noun.
It’s not my car; it’s my wife’s. It isn’t the government’s money; it’s the taxpayers’.
• We use the - s form on its own for someone’s home or shop.
I’m staying at my aunt’s. (= my aunt’s house) Go to a chemist’s. (= a chemist’s shop)
• -s is used with places/countries. London’s traffic problems Spain’s tourist industry
• and -s’ are used with expressions of time, today’s newspapers in three weeks’time
Noun + of + noun OR noun + noun
• When the possessor is a thing (not a person/an animal) we usually use noun + of + noun. the door of the house the manager of a record company the difficulty of the situation
• We can sometimes use just noun + noun, the kitchen window my holiday photos
• When the possessor is a ’long’ phrase or when it’s followed by a descriptive phrase or clause, we use of, not -'s.
the problems of unemployed workers the brother of the man we met in the pub
A friend of mine, etc.
• In this construction we use a possessive pronoun (mine, his, yours, etc.) or the -’s/s’form.
Is Jack a friend of yours? -He’s a friend of Mike’s. Tess has still got a book of mine
1 Liz Craig is a primary school teacher. Her class is doing a project on musical instruments and she asked them to bring in any instruments they had. At the end of the lesson she is asking which instruments belong to which children. Jack brought his father’s trumpet. The Taylor twins brought a concertina. Sarah brought some African drums. Sam and Zoe brought a Bolivian flute. Anna brought an accordion. The Kay sisters brought their guitars. Answer these questions.
Example: Who does the trumpet belong to? It's Jack's.
1 Whose are the guitars?
2 Who does the Bolivian flute belong to?
3 Whose are the African drums?
4 Who does the accordion belong to?
5 Whose is the concertina?
2 Read the text. Some of the lines are correct, and in some a possessive apostrophe 0 or the word of is missing. If a line is correct, put a tick (✓). If a line has a word where the possessive apostrophe is missing, write the correct form of the word. If the word of is missing, write of in the brackets. No. l has been completed for you.
1 Laura Lopez works at a travel agents in London. She’s the manager (agent’s)
2 of their South American department. She’s a successful manager and (...)
3 her speciality is dealing with customers problems. Her parents are (...)
4 Mexican, and when she travels to Mexico she stays on her grandparents (...)
5 farm near Oaxaca. Laura’s cousin lives in Lima, so when she goes (...)
6 to Peru she stays at her cousins. Laura’s got two children, but she’s (...)
7 divorced. Her childrens father now lives in Exeter. Once a month (...)
8 the children spend a weekend at their father’s. Since her divorce her (...)
9 life has changed. She now has the problems being a single parent, in (...)
10 addition to the demands her job. She feels that her ex-husband (...)
11 doesn’t understand the difficulties her situation. She reads about (...)
12 the problems of other single mothers in womens magazines, and she (...)
13 talks to Alice, the wife a man who works at the same travel agent’s. (...)
14 Alice seems to understand Lauras difficulties. She tells her to (...)
15 remember that ’todays problems are tomorrow’s opportunities.’ (...)
3 Use the noun + noun construction to rewrite the phrases in italics.
Example: Mervyn Street is a fanatical addict of rock and roll. (rock and roll addict)
The walls in his bedroom (1) ... are covered in posters of Mick Jagger (2) ... He’s got 15 albums of the Rolling Stones. (3) ... He’s painted ’I know it’s only rock and roll, but I like it’ on the door of his garage (4) ... The registration number of his car (5) ... is RS 1. He always plays rock and roll on the radio in his car (6) ... He even uses his computer to contact other fans of the Rolling Stones (7) ... on the Internet!
4 Justin is looking for Amy Nelson, one of his sister’s friends, who has got one of his CDs. He is talking to his friend, Adam. Use the construction a friend ofmine/a student of hers/a colleague of my father’s, etc. to replace the phrases in italics and to give Justin’s answers.
Justin: I’m looking for Amy Nelson.
Adam: Is she your friend (1) ...?
Justin: No, she’s (2) ...
Adam: Why do you want to talk to her?
Justin: Because she’s got (3) ...
Adam: Well, my brother knows Amy. She’s still got one of his videos (4) ... She never gave it back to him.
5 Make sentences about your family and friends, using possessive constructions.
Examples: My uncle Ramon is my mother’s brother. Manuela is one of my parents’ friends. Luis is a friend of my father’s.
Check your sentences with a teacher.