English Language Learners Stack Exchange
English Language Learners Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [possessives]

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

689 questions
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1 answer

Use master thesis or master's thesis

Is this sentence correct? Master thesis to obtain the degree Master of Science I am really not sure about the 's here.
Lukas Brunner
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Which possessive should I use when referring to the car of a friend?

Is this sentence correct? This is John's car, a friend of mine. Or do I need to say this? This is John, my friend's car.
user126190
12
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4 answers

Why "The blog of Bill Gates" and not "The Bill Gates' blog"?

Let's open https://www.gatesnotes.com/ The title of the site is "The blog of Bill Gates" Why "The blog of Bill Gates" and not "The Bill Gates' blog"? Is it the possessive case or not?
Jn Liv
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1 answer

Nested possessives

Let's imagine the following situation: My mom has a boyfriend and her boyfriend has a car. I borrowed this car and I want to tell another person who is the owner of this car, I believe I have to use 's twice in this sentence: This is my mom's…
Merurino
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6
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3 answers

"the car/car's color" vs. "the color of the car" -- Which is the more correct way to indicate possession?

I know 's is a contraction for indicating possession, but I've always wondered which cases it is correct to put 's after the word in. For instance, if I would to indicate the color of a car, how could I do so? The car's color is red. The color…
user12707
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5
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4 answers

Possessive form of plural nouns

Which one from following would be correct: woman pilots. women pilots. And the usage of which one from following options would be correct: Women's jobs Women jobs Woman jobs Woman's jobs. I cannot understand which option I should use.
Azahar Ali
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4
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4 answers

The name of the boy vs.The boy's name

Which one is correct or are both correct? The boy's name is nice. The name of the boy is nice. I'm really confused these two sentences? Which one is more suitable?
I don't know who I am.
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Does "my mother cars" need an apostrophe and S?

The first one sounds wrong to me but I'm not sure. Which one is correct? My mother's cars or My mother cars
PrisonPants
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4
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4 answers

How is the "'s" related to the death of a person or of an animal

"Camel hair" is, among other things, the hair of a camel. Since we talk about "sheep's wool" or "lamb's wool", why don't we use the "'s" after camel in the case above? Perhaps some historical reason might exist, but, as a not native of English…
user114
4
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1 answer

{days / days'} worth of stuff?

I'm confused. When reading a novel, I've encountered It's around 3 days worth of stuff. I thought "why not 3 days' worth of stuff?" So I checked the Sketchengine, and got 2.2k results for days worth of and 1.2k for days' worth of. In both cases,…
Ramid
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4
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2 answers

Possessives - "this year's question paper" or "this year question paper"

I found this in a grammar book: Wrong Sentence - All the candidates felt that this year's question paper was too easy. Right Sentence - All the candidates felt that this year the question paper was too easy. Is "this year's question paper" really…
TzD
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4
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1 answer

What is the possessive of Saint John's?

We have a city here in Canada named Saint John's. It is always spelt that way; the 's is part of the name (this must be a very unusual case, I'm not sure). What would be the correct way to refer to something the belongs to it? 'Saint John's' mayor',…
GregT
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4
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3 answers

Can we use ' 's ' with the names of the cities or towns?

Which of these can we say? London's people are happy. The people of London are happy. People are happy in London. People in London are happy.
Mahdi
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Correct possessive form of following sentences:

Which one of the following is correct regarding the possessive forms? "The effects of music therapy on students’ depression" "The effects of music therapy on student depression" (Note: 100 students are recruited into the study)
morteza
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1 answer

A '[sic]' is added to a passage. But why and which part is deemed as an error?

Are there any grammatical errors in the following passage? "...crazy metal tool … specifically for extracting foreign objects from people’s [sic] nostrils,” Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/09/16/embarrassing-ways-hospital_n_7942276.html
user24993
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