The possessive in English - Essential English grammar (2024)

Possessivestructures in English- use ofofand 's

"ShouldI use "of"or an "s"structure?"

Sadly there's no absolute rule totell you whether you need to use, or can use, a "possessive" formwith "of",on one with "'s".

Besides, there are a lot of caseswhere, even withpeople, you cannot use's.So here are the mainforms of"possession", and some exam­ples to re­member:

The first thing to determine is: is the "possessor" animateor inanimate?

1)Animates: HUMANPOSSESSORS,ORASSIMILATED:

1.1. Incases of true possession: 'sis normal. In many cases it will be essential

A1)The lady's carwouldn't start.
A2) The dog's ball was red..

Withqualities,attributes or actions: 's is common.

A3)Madonna's reputation isinternational.
A4) The dog's name was Jackson.
A5) The Queen's arrival was delayed.

These can also be easily expressed using of.

A31)The reputation of Madonna is international.
A41) The name of the dog was Jackson.

There is a differencein emphasis between the two alternatives: examples

• A3-A5emphasize the possessor,
• A31 and A41 emphasize the qualityor attribute.

In A5, the "possessor" is thesubject of the verbal noun (arrival)following it.

Situationsin which there is nochoice:
Sometimeshowever, even though both forms are theoretically possible, the structureof asentence will determine the choice of expression, as a word may haveto stand next to other words qualifying it: for example

1.2.Possessive adjectives:

There is no choice when possession is indicated by a possessive adjective, suchas his,my, your, etc.

A61 Yourloss is my gain
A62 I took my brother to see ourgrandfather.
A62x Itook the brother of me to see the grandfather of us.

1.3.Relating a part to a whole (animates)

Use of "of" is obligatorywhen expressing the relation of aproportion to a composite whole

A71the rest of thepeople,
A72 the majority of voters
A73 a quarter of the committee

Wecan NOTsay:

A71x:thepeople's rest,
A72x: thevoters' majority
A73x: thecommittee's quarter

Ofand 's areboth possible (depending on sentence structure) whenexpressing the relation of apart to a unitary (single)whole.

A8The man's armwas broken, or
A81 The arm of the manwas broken

1.3. 'swith nouns already ending in s.

There is no hard rulehere. Some writers use ...s's,others prefer ...s' withno second s. Both formsare used, and different "authorities" give different "rules".
If there is any guideline, it isperhaps to prefer s's withmonosyllables, and prefer s' withlonger words. The s'sform is arguably preferable with monosyllables, such as names commonlyused in spoken English. To writeJames' fatherwhen one would normally say 'James'sfather' (pronounced Jamezizfather) may seem odd....Yet nothing is fixed. In London there is a famous park calledSt. James's Park.In Newcastle there is a famous football stadium called St. James' Park.
To continue with football, it would however beunusual to write, of the former England team manager, Terry Venables's career.....Most people would write (and also say) "TerryVenables' career...." : but neither form is unacceptable.

2.Inanimatepossessors

For qualities, attributes,actions, or parts:Ofisthe usualstructure, but 's maybe possible;
Theunusual "'s"form can be usedwith somefamiliar nouns for stress, or for reasons of sentencestructure.

B1The costof the operationwas enormous.
B2The condition of the goodswe received was not verysatisfactory
B3The launch of the new book was very successful.
B31The new book's launch was very successful.
B4Where's thelid of thesaucepan?
B5The frontend of thecar wassmashed up.
B6 The departure of the train was delayed for an hour.
B61The train's departure was delayed for an hour.

In examples B3 and B6, thesentence could be rephrased using subject and verb instead of thepossessive structures.

B32The new book waslaunched very successfully (subj. + passive verb)
B62 the traindeparted an hour later than planned (subj. + active verb)

2.1.Relating a part to a whole (inanimates) or a group to its constituents

The "of" form is normally obligatory when expressing the relation of a part to a whole(or a whole to its parts)when the part has no meaning unless it refers to a whole.

B7 thetop of the stairs.
(i.e.the word topis meaningless without reference to stairs)
B8 the back of the building
B9 The middle of the report

The same is usually true when expressing the relationof a unit to a group(or agroup to its units)when the group is defined by the units of which it iscomposed.

B10 A collection of paintings
B11 A group of trees

Wecan NOTsay:

B71x:the stairs' top .
B81x: thebuilding's back.
B101x A paintings'collection

Howeverthere sometimesisa choicewhen the part is expressed as adjective+noun,or when the partis more important in the phrase than the whole (B 13,B131),

B12 The top floor ofthe building
B121 The building's top floor
B 13 The roof of the building was on fire
B 131 The building's roof was on fire

3.Complemental noun groups

"of"is essential, except in a few specific cases.

C1)Thetheoryof relativity. NOT:the relativity'stheory
C2) The Department of Linguistics. NOT:the Linguistics'sdepartment

can often be rephrased as compounds,without 's:

C11)therelativity theory
C21)theLinguistics Department

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