English has two cases: common and possessive. Let's analyze each separately.

Common case - Common case

Nouns in the common case are used in the functions of the subject (and correspond in Russian to a noun in the nominative case), the nominal part of the compound predicate, the object, and also the circumstance.

The form of the common case alone, without the help of additional means, cannot convey the relationship of a noun to other words in a sentence. Such additional means in English are the word order in the sentence and prepositions: of - corresponds to the genitive case, to - to the dative case, by, with - to the instrumental case, of, about - to the prepositional case with the prepositions "o" and "about".

For example:

The dean spoke of our faculty.
The dean (the dean - nominative case) spoke about our faculty.

Students greeted the dean.
The students greeted the dean (accusative).

The lecture of the dean was listened to with great attention.
The dean's lecture (genitive case) was listened to with great attention.

A very interesting story was told by the dean.
A very interesting story was told by the dean (instrumental).

He missed many lectures and had to explain the reason to the dean.
He missed many lectures and must explain the reason to the dean (dative).

She told me many interesting things about our new dean.
She told me a lot of interesting things about our new dean (prepositional).

Possessive case - Possessive case

Nouns in the possessive case indicate the ownership of an object or concept, answering the question whose? - whose?, or attitude to another subject, answering the questions what? - what?, how much? - how many? etc. The possessive case is used in the function of definition and stands before the word being defined.

My sister's room... My sister's room...

The possessive case is formed:

Using an apostrophe (") and the letter s ("s) for singular nouns and for plural nouns that do not end in -s:

the boy "s room - the boy's room, Tom" s book - Tom's book, the men "s hats - men's hats, women" s work - the work of women.

Only with an apostrophe (") for plural nouns ending in -s:

the boys" room - boys' room, the students answers - students' answers.

The possessive form is used:

Mainly nouns denoting animate objects:

my teacher "s pen is my teacher's pen. Tom" s friends are Tom's friends.

Nouns denoting:

time - with words such as minute, hour, day, week, night, month, year, while expressing the meanings of "during", "for the period", etc. (unlike when this case is not used - see point 2 of the next paragraph):

today "s newspapers - today's newspapers, an hour" s absence - absence for an hour, a week "s holiday - a weekly vacation, a year" s journey - a journey that lasts a year;

distance:

a mile s distance - distance in a mile, two kilometres" walk - a path of two kilometers;

price:

ten dollars worth of chocolate - chocolate worth 10 dollars;

names of stars and planets:

the Sun "s rays - the sun's rays, the Moon" s light - moonlight, the Earth "s resources - the resources of the Earth;

names of countries, cities, etc.:

the United States "participation - the participation of the United States, Moscow s squares - Moscow Square, this Liverpool" s Cathedral - this Liverpool Cathedral;

moving mechanisms or machine parts (in the language of technical literature):

the plane "s propellers - aircraft propellers.

Notes

Relations expressed using the possessive case can be conveyed by a construction with the preposition of:

France "s economy - the economy of France - the economy of France.

In cases where something is expressed belonging to something (i.e., belonging to an inanimate object), then, as a rule, a construction with the preposition of is used:

the walls of the town - the walls of the city, the legs of the table - table legs.

Nouns in the possessive form can be used without a subsequent noun denoting a location. In this case, the possessive case has a local meaning.

For example: at my sister "s - in my sister's house, at the baker" s - in the bakery.

The possessive case is not used:

If of two, as a rule, inanimate nouns, the first one acts as a definition with a pronounced meaning “characteristic, ordinary, used for something”, etc., and the combination is considered as a single, integral concept:

a street lamp - a street lamp, and newspaper article - a newspaper article.

With words that express time and act as a definition:

summer holidays - summer holidays, November fogs - November fogs, birthday party - birthday party (time is expressed in terms of age).

With the names of cities, districts, proper names, etc., when they are an integral element of the name:

the Gomel University - Gomel University, "The Vitebsk Worker" - "Vitebsk Worker" (newspaper), the Pushkin Museum - Pushkin Museum.

With the names of items of clothing, equipment with shades of the meaning described in paragraph I:

a football ground - football ground, a coffee cup - coffee cup.

The English language, being analytical, does not distinguish, by and large, cases, since nouns are devoid of endings (the exception is the ending by number). All relationships between words in a sentence are conveyed through prepositions.
However, in grammar it is generally accepted that in English there are still two cases - common (actually the dictionary version of the word, which is used in the vast majority of cases) and possessive ( Possessive Case). Let's get straight to the point:

A beautiful house of my friend's sister. - Beautiful house of my friend's sister.

We tried to screw it up as best we could. In this sentence, there are as many as three manifestations of such a phenomenon as the possessive case:

friend 's sister - friend's sister
house of … sister- sister's house
my friend's is my friend

What is the possessive case?

The possessive case is an adjective for the noun that comes after it. The word in the possessive case answers the question "Whose"?

We decided to rephrase this beautiful definition a bit and make it more understandable:

The possessive case denotes "owner" (a word with apostrophe or preposition of) an object or phenomenon (subsequent word). It turns out that:

a siste r's house = sister- the owner (therefore it is with an apostrophe), and house- what belongs to her

friend 's sister = friend- owner, and sister(rather tongue-tied, but illustrative) belongs to him.

a leg of the table= table- owner (therefore, the word is preceded by a preposition of, expressing the meaning of “whose?”), and leg- what belongs to the table.

Possessive case formation

The possessive case will be formed differently with animate and inanimate nouns. Here we are talking about the forms of the possessive case.

Animated nouns

The possessive case can be formed animate nouns by adding ‘s in the singular. Let's call it "pure form":

mother 's car - mom's car = (whose?) mom's car
Jack 's friend - Jack's friend = (whose?) Jack's friend
cat 's rug - cat rug = (whose?) “cat” rug

In English, nouns in the possessive case always stand before defined word (“owner - subject”).

In plural we only add apostrophe ‘. The very form of the word already has an ending -s/ -es. The heap of a large number of hissing in English is not welcome:

cat s’ tails - tails of cats
sister s’ family name - surname sisters

There are a number of nouns that form the plural form by changing the root vowels or word form. Such words will form the possessive case by adding the traditional s':

women 's clothes - women's clothing
children 's toys - children's toys

Possessive case with inanimate nouns

In practice, it is generally accepted that inanimate nouns form a form of the possessive case, resorting to preposition of- we will call it the “prepositional” form. AT this case"owner" stands after preposition and after the defined word:

the roof of the house= house - owner ( of conveys the meaning of the question “whose?”) - the roof (whose? what?) of the house

the door of the library- door (whose? what?) of the library

Can't do without exceptions! There are a number inanimate nouns, which will form the possessive in the traditional way - ‘s. These words can be grouped according to the following features:

1. nouns denoting time and adverbs of time / distance / cost:
a month's holiday - time
today's paper - adverb of time
a kilometer's walk - distance
two dollar's worth

2. nouns denoting celestial bodies:

sun's rays

3. collective nouns referring to groups or communities of people/ pronouns that replace animate nouns:

our family's house - group
nobody's business - pronoun

Possessive pronouns

Another manifestation of the possessive case can be found in possessive pronouns.

In the case when there is a desire to use a pronoun without a subsequent noun, it partially acquires the characteristics ‘s.

It is my car. - It is mine.
your room- yours
his toy- his
her boyfriend- hers
its leg- its
our house- ours
thier cafe- theirs

This is called the absolute form of the possessive pronoun, which can take the place of a noun.

P.S. Words in the possessive case have the same properties as possessive pronouns and displace the article. If "owners" are two or more words, apostrophe joins the last one:

Mary and Jack 's flat - Mary and Jack's apartment

In English, you can find a number of set expressions in which the possessive case will be formed against the rules, for example:

for goodness ’ sake - for God's sake

Despite the fact that goodness is an inanimate and abstract noun, the possessive case is expressed in a “pure” form.

We wish you interesting practice and success!

Victoria Tetkina

In English, nouns have only two cases: possessive case (Possessive Case), in which nouns take a special ending and general case (Common Case), in which nouns do not have any endings.

Common case is the form in which the noun is given in the dictionary.

Majority value Russian case forms is transmitted in English in the form of the common case with or without a preposition:

In English, nouns in common case can be used in the functions of the subject and direct object (always without a preposition), indirect and prepositional objects, circumstances (usually with a preposition), definitions (both with and without a preposition).

Possessive nouns in the only number is formed by adding the ending to the noun ‘s:

Possessive nouns in plural number is formed by adding only one apostrophe:

If the plural of a noun is formed not by adding the ending /s/, but by changing the form, then the possessive case is formed in the same way as for the singular, i.e. adding the ending / ‘s/:

A noun in the possessive case has only one function - definitions(individual characteristic of the word being defined):

The possessive construction can be presented with the preposition of:

the boy' s room = the room of the boy

3. Possessive case of animate and inanimate nouns:

Basically, only animated a noun denoting a living being to which an object, quality or attribute belongs:

Rare cases of using the possessive case with inanimate nouns are limited to the meaning of a particular subject:

the car ‘s roof - car roof(specific, specific machine)

4. Cases of using the possessive case for inanimate nouns:

• Nouns denoting time and distance:
  
• Nouns denoting countries, cities and courts, as well as words: world, country, city, ship:
  
• Some adverbs of time:
  
• The word being defined has other determiners - the indefinite article or demonstrative pronouns:
  
• Phrases without a noun:
  
• To name an institution, shop, or home (of someone):
  

Two nouns in the possessive case usually do not follow one another. In such cases, the suggestion of:

He is the friend of my brother ‘s wife

He is a friend of my brother's wife.

In the following video clip, children show the belonging of objects to each other, and the teacher pronounces a sentence using nouns in the possessive case:

English Joke

A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, "Your first job will be to sweep out the store."
"But I'm a college graduate," the young man replied indignantly.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that,” said the manager. "Here, give me the broom - I'll show you how."