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Ouroboros Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Possessive S

Example: through a friend of her mother's

Dear English speakers, could you please shed some light as to why it is necessary to use the possessive S in expressions similar to the one above? Is it a horrible blunder to say "through a friend of her mother." With pronouns, I somehow "feel" we need to put them into possessive form, while with nouns I am a tad shaky.

Thanks in advance!
  

Top answer

ouroboros Dear English speakers, could you please shed some light as to why it is necessary to use the possessive S in expressions similar to the one above? It is sometimes necessary to use the double possessive to avoid confusion: a picture of her mother would have the mother in the photo, not the possessor of the photo. " Not at all; it is just that many (most?

— Mister Micawber

  • ouroboros Dear English speakers, could you please shed some light as to why it is necessary to use the possessive S in expressions similar to the one above?
  • It is sometimes necessary to use the double possessive to avoid confusion: a picture of her mother would have the mother in the photo, not the possessor of the photo.
  • " Not at all; it is just that many (most?
  • ) native speakers naturally use the double possessive, so it often sounds non-native (when it is not ambiguous).
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2 Answers
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ouroborosDear English speakers, could you please shed some light as to why it is necessary to use the possessive S in expressions similar to the one above?
It is sometimes necessary to use the double possessive to avoid confusion: a picture of her mother would have the mother in the photo, not the possessor of the photo.
ouroboros
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Thank you very much:) A very clear and to the point explanation. It helped a lot!
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