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Paeez Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

possession

Hi,

As I know there are three ways to show possession between nouns.
Would you please tell me where are proper situations to use them?

1) Without any sings : The door handles
2) With 's : Jim's books
3) With of : the color of his hair

Would you please explain every possible situations? For instance, I guess it wouldn't be common to express possessions without anythings for humans. eg Jim hand

Thanks
  

Top answer

Yes, the apostrophe+s is used with people and animate objects to show ownership. (Fido's bone, the cat's pajamas, father's pipe, my brother's wife) It can also be used in time expressions to show duration: a day's journey, an hour's wait. Also with money and quantities to show amount: a dollar's worth of sugar With inanimate objects, the of- form is most often used.

— AlpheccaStars

  • Yes, the apostrophe+s is used with people and animate objects to show ownership.
  • (Fido's bone, the cat's pajamas, father's pipe, my brother's wife) It can also be used in time expressions to show duration: a day's journey, an hour's wait.
  • Also with money and quantities to show amount: a dollar's worth of sugar With inanimate objects, the of- form is most often used.
  • If the relationship is something other than possession, and there is a very ordinary association between the objects, no ending is used: A common relationship is being made of or being connected to , or being used for /in the garden wall a bell tower a rose garden a water park the rock face the gold bracelet four table legs fine wool sweater split rail fence iron railing a sugar shell a sale shaker a pepper mill Quantities (distance, time) are hyphenated) a six-mile race a four-foot fence a three-hour wait a forty-five-minute lecture When there is more than one noun in the phrase, the first will have the 's ending: the clock's hour hand There is no 100% rule though.
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10 Answers
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Yes, the apostrophe+s is used with people and animate objects to show ownership. (Fido's bone, the cat's pajamas, father's pipe, my brother's wife)
It can also be used in time expressions to show duration: a day's journey, an hour's wait.
Also with money and quantities to show amount: a dollar's worth of sugar

With inanimate objects, the of- form is most often used.
If the rel
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It's GOLD! Thank you! Emotion: smile
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AlpheccaStarsQuantities (distance, time) are hyphenated)a six-mile racea four-foot fencea three-hour waita forty-five-minute lecture
PS I guess there is another form of compound quantifiers with hyphens too!

I mean number+unit+adjective
eg a two-meter-wide hole or a ten-meter-height hole I guess mostly a ten-m
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PS2 Do you have any suggestions when more than two nouns are involved?
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If the students go to one of the colleges that make up the University of London (London University), then they are University of London students/London University students*. If they go to another university, but live in London, they are university students (living) in London.

*London/London's U/university students is potentially ambiguous. A careful speaker/write will
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Paeezeg a two-meter-wide hole or a ten-meter-height hole I guess mostly a ten-meter holemeans height. Right?
Yes, the adjectives can be strung together like this:

A two-meter-deep hole. Holes have depth, not height.
A four-by-eight-foot granite slab
A two-by-four fence post (a standard size in the US, the units are inches). This is the cross
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First, thank you a lot.
Second, I checked out your picture (). Congratulations, despite the fact that you are young, you have well organized mind, and are a very good teacher. Thank again.
AlpheccaStarsI need twenty eight-foot two-by-fours to repair my fence.
I thought in such noun phrases we do not use plural s, but you used two-by-fours.
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Paeezdespite the fact that you are young,
I read that again, and it doesn't sound good! Right?
What about this: ,despite being young,
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Paeez I checked your picture ( ). Congratulations, despite the fact that you are young, you have well organized mind, and very good teacher.
That's AS's granddaughter.

Your post appears to suggest that young people cannot have well-organised minds or be very good teachers. I hope you did not intend that.
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fivejedjonThat's AS's granddaughter.
Really! I don't believe that! Anyway, before I saw that picture, I assumed she is about 24-26, so I guess she has a good spirit. Again congratulation to her!
fivejedjonYour post appears to suggest that young people cannot have well-organised minds or be very good teachers. I hope you did not intend t
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