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Neverness Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Tricky plural-possesive problem
Hi all,
The other day at work, a few friends and I got into a discussion about plurals and possessives applying to a string of nouns. The sentence in question was, "One of my friends sister is getting married." The desired logic goes like, "one of my friends" -> "his sister" -> "she is getting married."
We couldn't agree upon what form of the noun "friend" is correct: "friend's ", "friends' " or just "friends "?
As far as I can tell, "friend" in this context should be plural (since we are talking about choosing one friend from amongst potentially many), but we also have to qualify the relationship between that one chosen friend and his sister through the possessive case. What I can't tell though is where to place the apostrophe, or if one is even required.
I have a feeling that "friend's" should be the way to go, but I don't have a reasonable explanation for it. I'm hoping you guys can help me understand this.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Nik
The other day at work, a few friends and I got into a discussion about plurals and possessives applying to a string of nouns. The sentence in question was, "One of my friends sister is getting married." The desired logic goes like, "one of my friends" -> "his sister" -> "she is getting married."
We couldn't agree upon what form of the noun "friend" is correct: "friend's ", "friends' " or just "friends "?
As far as I can tell, "friend" in this context should be plural (since we are talking about choosing one friend from amongst potentially many), but we also have to qualify the relationship between that one chosen friend and his sister through the possessive case. What I can't tell though is where to place the apostrophe, or if one is even required.
I have a feeling that "friend's" should be the way to go, but I don't have a reasonable explanation for it. I'm hoping you guys can help me understand this.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Nik
Top answer
I would say friend's as it is one of your friends sister, if more than one of your friends I would use friends'. That is my logic -whether or not that is correct I don't know. (Next time tell him to say a sister of one my friends).
- I would say friend's as it is one of your friends sister, if more than one of your friends I would use friends'.
- That is my logic -whether or not that is correct I don't know.
- (Next time tell him to say a sister of one my friends).
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4 Answers
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I would say friend's as it is one of your friends sister, if more than one of your friends I would use friends'. That is my logic -whether or not that is correct I don't know.
(Next time tell him to say a sister of one my friends).
(Next time tell him to say a sister of one my friends).
00
The apostrophe-s goes after the whole expression.
the (King of England) 's crown > the King of England's crown.
So
(one of my friends) 's sister > one of my friends's sister
But in this case I would not put the final s on it because there's already an s there to form the plural.
one of my friends' sister
That's wh
the (King of England) 's crown > the King of England's crown.
So
(one of my friends) 's sister > one of my friends's sister
But in this case I would not put the final s on it because there's already an s there to form the plural.
one of my friends' sister
That's wh
00
I still hate possessives, because sometimes there's no way to know how to write or pronounce them. In this case, anyway, it's pronounced "one of my friends sister", right? Not "one of my friendziz sister"...
The problem is... if you had to say "one of Britney Spears's friends", I'm not sure anyone would know how to write or pronounce that, LoL.
The problem is... if you had to say "one of Britney Spears's friends", I'm not sure anyone would know how to write or pronounce that, LoL.
00
Actually, I think you may have to say "One of my friends' sisters"-- with sisterS being plural. She is not the sisters to all of the friends. Of all of the sisters of all of the friends, she is the one getting married.
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