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Gtk Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
multiple possessives
Which variant would you use:
1. Mary's cousin's book.
2. The book of Mary's cousin.
I learnt from a grammar book that we should use several "of" prepositions and an " 's " at the end in case of having several consecutive possessives instead of using an " 's " for each noun. However, some people seem to disagree.
How about this one: The colour of the car of my friend's cousin is white. ?
1. Mary's cousin's book.
2. The book of Mary's cousin.
I learnt from a grammar book that we should use several "of" prepositions and an " 's " at the end in case of having several consecutive possessives instead of using an " 's " for each noun. However, some people seem to disagree.
How about this one: The colour of the car of my friend's cousin is white. ?
Top answer
Generally, stick with -'s for humans and of for non-humans: Mary's cousin's book The colour of my friend's cousin's car
- Generally, stick with -'s for humans and of for non-humans: Mary's cousin's book The colour of my friend's cousin's car
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3 Answers
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Generally, stick with -'s for humans and of for non-humans:
Mary's cousin's book
The colour of my friend's cousin's car
Mary's cousin's book
The colour of my friend's cousin's car
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Why say the colour of the car is white when you can say the car is white or speak of a white car?
Since 's shows possession, why not use has to avoid two 's in a row?
My friend's cousin has a white car.
That said, I would say - in the first example - Mary's cousin's book (as an isolated phrase), but not Mary's cousin's book is huge
Since 's shows possession, why not use has to avoid two 's in a row?
My friend's cousin has a white car.
That said, I would say - in the first example - Mary's cousin's book (as an isolated phrase), but not Mary's cousin's book is huge
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which is correct grammar, no they are ann's and tom's
or no they are ann and tom's
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