Forming Possessives Showing possession in English is a relatively easy matter (believe it or not). By adding an apostrophe and an s we can manage to transform most singular nouns into their possessive form: the cars front seat Charless car Bartkowskis book a hard days work Some writers will say that the -s after Charles is not necessary and that adding only the apostrophe (Charles car) will suffice to show possession. Consistency is the key here: if you choose not to add the -s after a noun that already ends in s, do so consistently throughout your text. William Strunks Elements of Style recommends adding the s. (In fact, oddly enough, its Rule Number One in Strunks Elementary Rules of Usage.) You will find that some nouns, especially proper nouns, especially when there are other -s and -z sounds involved, turn into clumsy beasts when you add another s: Thats old Mrs. Chamberss estate. In that case, youre better off with Mrs. Chambers estate. There is another way around this problem of klunky possessives: using the of phrase to show possession. For instance, we would probably say the constitution of Illinois, as opposed to Illinois (or Illinoiss ??) constitution. To answer that question about Illinois, you should know that most words that end in an unpronounced s form their possessive by adding an apostrophe + s. So we would write about Illinoiss next governor and Arkansass former governor and the Marine Corpss policy. However, many non-English words that end with a silent s or x will form their possessives with only an apostrophe. So we would write Alexander Dumas first novel and this bordeaux bouquet. According to the New York Public Librarys Guide to Style and Usage, there are certain expressions that end in s or the s sound that traditionally require an apostrophe only: for appearance sake, for conscience sake, for goodness sake (268). Incidentally, the NYPL Guide also suggests that when a word ends in a double s, were better off writing its possessive with only an apostrophe: the boss memo, the witness statement. Many writers insist, however, that we actually hear an es sound attached to the possessive forms of these words, so an apostrophe -s is appropriate: bosss memo, witnesss statement. If the look of the three ss in a row doesnt bother you, use that construction. When we want the possessive of a pluralized family name, we pluralize first and then simply make the name possessive with the use of an apostrophe. Thus, we might travel in the Smiths car when we visit the Joneses (members of the Jones family) at the Joneses home. When the last name ends in a hard z sound, we usually dont add an s or the -es and simply add the apostrophe: the Chambers new baby. Many writers consider it bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives with pieces of furniture and buildings or inanimate objects in general. Instead of the desks edge (according to many authorities), we should write the edge of the desk and instead of the hotels windows we should write the windows of the hotel. In fact, we would probably avoid the possessive altogether and use the noun as an attributive: the hotel windows. This rule (if, in fact, it is one) is no longer universally endorsed. We would not say the radio of that car instead of that cars radio (or the car radio) and we would not write the desire of my heart instead of my hearts desire. Writing the edge of the ski would probably be an improvement over the skis edge, however. For expressions of time and measurement, the possessive is shown with an apostrophe -s: one dollars worth, two dollars worth, a hard days night, two years experience, an evenings entertainment, and two weeks notice (the title of the Hollywood movie nothwithstanding). Remember that personal pronouns create special problems in the formation of possessives. See the chart of Noun and Pronoun Cases. Possessives & Gerunds Possessive forms are frequently modifiers for verb forms used as nouns, or gerunds. Using the possessive will affect how we read the sentence. For instance, Im worried about Joe running in the park after dark means that Im worried about Joe and the fact that he runs in the park after dark (the word running is a present participle modifying Joe). On the other hand, Im worried about Joes running in the park after dark puts the emphasis on the running that Joe is doing (running is a gerund, and Joes modifies that verbal). Usually, almost always in fact, we use the possessive form of a noun or pronoun to modify a gerund. More is involved, however. Click HERE for further information about using the possessive
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 13:01:22 +0000
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