Possessive pronoun

Question

Since it is correct to say: This is a friend of hers and This is a friend of Laura's, do I have to assume that I cannot say: This is a friend of Laura or This the house of the dog?

Maj · Accepted Answer

You can definitely say Henry is a friend of mine. I have known him for a long time and he has a witty sense of humour.

Whl626 · Answer

This is a friend of Laura is correct sentence I think

Rommie · Answer

This is that most curious phenonmenon of English language - the DOUBLE POSSESSIVE.

In a normal, that is, single possessive, the possessive case stands for something like "the ____ of ____". For example, "a ship's hull" is "the hull of a ship".

However, possessive case can often be ambiguous. Consider the phrase "my mother's picture". Does this mean "the picture DEPICTING my mother", or does it mean "the picture OWNED BY my mother"?

In English, this ambiguity is resolved by use of the double-possessive. Compare:

1. The picture of my mother
2. The picture of my mother's

Example 1 (a single possessive) refers unambiguously to the picture DEPICTING my mother
Example 2 (a double possessive) refers unambiguously to the picture OWNED BY my mother.

It's called a double possessive because we're using BOTH genetive case (the apostrophe-s) AND the preposition OF at the same time.

Possession doesn't always mean "ownership", of course. When it comes to human relationships, possession just means "associated with" or "related to", but such relationships still count as possessive case.

WHL advised you to put "This is a friend of Laura". I believe he is not correct - the double possessive is pretty much always used with people, even if the phrase would not otherwise be ambiguous. In other words, the correct sentence is: "This is a friend of Laura's" , because you need to positively assert possession.

On the other hand, a dog isn't a person. So "This is the house of the dog" is fine.

Rommie

Whl626 · Answer

This is a friend of Laura ( wrong ) Laura's ( right ). I made a mistake in the previous post.

Anonymous · Answer

The girl was lost from its platoon.

Mr. Franck found his friend.

The lion cub found its mother in the jungle.

Nona the brit · Answer

The last two are fine but the people are not referred to as 'it'.

Anonymous · Answer

is their a rule in possesive pronouns?
if thier is would you tell me immedately
because its a the deadline is tomorrow.

SARAH..

Possessive pronoun

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