Genitive plural opinions! Which is correct: Tomorrow the sister of a university friend of Clare and John is getting married. Or of Clare's and John's?

Asked Jun 30 '21 at 10:31

Active Jun 30 '21 at 10:40

Viewed 11 times

Native speaker here confused about genitive case.

Genitive plural opinions! Which is correct:

Tomorrow the sister of a university friend of Clare and John is getting married
Tomorrow the sister of a university friend of Clare's and John's is getting married

edited Jun 30 '21 at 10:40

Void

asked Jun 30 '21 at 10:31

Claire

4

Does this answer your question? How do "Friend of P" and "Friend of P's" mean the inverse of each other? Also Double Possessive - two friends of hers – FumbleFingers Jun 30 '21 at 10:45
...there's also my own question about this, as asked on ELU some years ago: Why is it usually “friend of his”, but no possessive apostrophe with “friend of Peter”? – FumbleFingers Jun 30 '21 at 10:47
1

...you missed out the possibility of *friend of Clare and John's, as might be used by a speaker who thinks that because "Clare and John" are [an item*](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/be-an-item), they can share one possessive apostrophe between the two of them. – FumbleFingers Jun 30 '21 at 10:53

0 Answers0