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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 here I cannot understand why 'two friends of hers' is used instead of 'her two friends'. Please explain why.

jinnyk216
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  • I don't follow you. You can't say "my a friend". "Two friends of hers" does not mean the same as "two of my friends". I think you need to rethink your question. – BillJ May 27 '19 at 12:05
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    I don't know why you keep switching between *hers* and *my. It would be possible to say Two of her friends [were waiting]* (or *two of my friends) instead of two friends of hers* (or *two friends of mine). In most contexts the two forms are equivalent and interchangeable. You could also use Her two friends [, Jon and Rachel,] were waiting* in your context with almost the same meaning (not quite, because that version tends to imply either that she only has two friends, OR only those two particular friends are relevant to the broader narrative context). – FumbleFingers May 27 '19 at 12:13
  • That was my mistake. I modified 'my' to 'her' now. I'm sorry. – jinnyk216 May 27 '19 at 12:25
  • Is 'two friends of hers' an idiomatic expression? – jinnyk216 May 27 '19 at 12:30
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    Yes - it's idiomatic to always use the *possessive* form of the pronoun (*of hers / of mine* rather than *of her / of me). But that "double possessive" is optional* when used with a proper noun and the Saxon genitive, so *Two friends of Peter* and *Two friends of Peter's* are both perfectly idiomatic. See my question Why is it usually “friend of his”, but no possessive apostrophe with “friend of Peter”? over on ELU for further discussion about this. – FumbleFingers May 27 '19 at 13:18
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    (It's irrelevant that all the above examples feature plural *friends. Exactly the same applies with a friend of Peter* and *a friend of Peter's*, which are both fine.) – FumbleFingers May 27 '19 at 13:21

1 Answers1

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Two friends of hers were waiting. implies:

They are two of what could be other friends or other types of relationships.

  • Two members of my family. The of often signals some kind of group (group of friends, group of family members)

Her two friends is much more specific because it could imply those are her only friends.

  • Two friends of mine speak Italian. Three do not. [i.e. in or from my group of friends]

  • My two friends speak Italian. That suggests I only have two friends.

[There is no double possessive.]

Lambie
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  • +1 Quite so. Although neither explicitly states her total number of friends, the usage of the phrases strongly suggests these interpretations. – Jason Bassford May 27 '19 at 14:13