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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Possessive ending to a sentence
I have recently come across what I regard as bad grammar and would like a re-inforcement of my view. The written phrase such as " he is a friend of my brother's" is to me incorrect. Am I right?
I regard the possessive "brother's" to be wrong and the phrase should just be " he is a friend of my brother".
If someone verbally said it to me I would think that the person saying it had more than one brother who had a mutual friend.
Could I have your comments please?
Doug
I regard the possessive "brother's" to be wrong and the phrase should just be " he is a friend of my brother".
If someone verbally said it to me I would think that the person saying it had more than one brother who had a mutual friend.
Could I have your comments please?
Doug
Top answer
Greetings, Doug, unfortunately, you are imprecise here. This type of construction is known as double genitive. Consider this: a friend of my brother's which signifies 'one of the friends that my brother has'.
- Greetings, Doug, unfortunately, you are imprecise here.
- This type of construction is known as double genitive.
- Consider this: a friend of my brother's which signifies 'one of the friends that my brother has'.
- Some determiners (such as a and the possessives) are mutually exlusive, so it is ungrammatical to say ' *a my brother's friend'.
- However, you can combine a and the possessive by using the double genitive.
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2 Answers
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Greetings, Doug,
unfortunately, you are imprecise here. This type of construction is known as double genitive. Consider this:
a friend of my brother's
which signifies 'one of the friends that my brother has'.
Some determiners (such as a and the possessives) are mutually exlusive, so it is ungrammatical to say ' *a my brother's friend'. Howev
unfortunately, you are imprecise here. This type of construction is known as double genitive. Consider this:
a friend of my brother's
which signifies 'one of the friends that my brother has'.
Some determiners (such as a and the possessives) are mutually exlusive, so it is ungrammatical to say ' *a my brother's friend'. Howev
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Anonymous" he is a friend of my brother's" is to me incorrect. Am I right?No. Sorry. Unfortunately, you are wrong. These combinations are grammatical and quite commonly used, especially with a friend of.
a friend of my brother's = one of my brother's friends
a friend of mine = one of my friends
a cousin of Laura's = one of
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