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A long time ago, in good old England, nouns changed not only by gender and number, which we are used to in modern English, but there were five main cases! Wed there are six of them in Russian. Moreover, nouns were divided into two categories of declension: strong and weak. Depending on the type of declension, various endings were added to the noun.

Fortunately for all modern English learners, there are only three cases left today: Nominative (Nominative), Accusative (Accusative) and Genitive (Genitive) cases. The genitive case is often called Possessive Case (Possessive). Today we will talk about it.

Possessive case formation

Examples using the Possessive Case

The boy`s cat that man`s hat that man`s hat my father`s friend my dad`s friend his teacher`s mom his teacher`s mom I don’t get on well with Sam’s wife. I don't get along very well with Sam's wife. I've seen Andy's car in the yard. I saw Andy's car in the yard.

Use of the possessive case

The possessive case answers the question " Whose?” (whose?) and performs the function of a definition in a sentence. With Possessive Case, we can show belonging or related, friendly relations.

RIGHT	NOT PROPERLY
my friend's name my father's son	name my friend's son my father's

Some nuances of use.

As a rule, the possessive case with ending ‘s form animate nouns (the bird`s tail - the tail of a bird, the King`s castle - the king's castle).
To show the relation of belonging to inanimate nouns, it is necessary to use turnover with preposition of (the door of the car - the door of the car, the page of the book - the page of the book).
But there are a number of exceptions to the rule.

Examples of unusual formation and use of the Possessive case

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5

A moment like, occupies far from the last place in grammar textbooks. How can one talk about belonging to something without this topic? Inanimate nouns can still be dealt with somehow, but what about in other cases? First things first….

Rules for the possessive case in English

As you know, rules of the possessive case in English are needed to express the belonging of an object to a particular person. That is, today we will learn to say "friend's house", "wife's letters" and so on. The following instructions will help you figure out what's what.

1. According to the standard rule, the ownership of an object is expressed by adding an apostrophe and -s to the animate person to whom the thing belongs.

For example: my sister 's powder - my sister's powder

2. If the item belongs to a plural noun (it is formed according to the rules, using -s), then you need to add only an apostrophe to this word.

For example: my sisters ’ house - the house of my sisters

3. In cases where a noun forms the plural in a special way, it is recommended to adhere to the standard rule (apostrophe + -s).

For example: the children 's toys - children's toys

4. If in a sentence you need to name two persons to whom something belongs, then the apostrophe and -s added to the last noun.

For example: Peter and Mary 's apartment – ​​apartment of Peter and Mary

5. There are phrases with compound nouns. In this case, the apostrophe and -s it is recommended to add to the last part.

For example: my mother-in-law 's dog - my mother-in-law's dog

6. The rules of the possessive case in English usually apply only to animate nouns. That is, inanimate nouns are not friends with the apostrophe + -s. Here the well-known preposition will help us of.

For example: a piece of paper - a piece of paper

Possessive case in English. Examples

Agree, it is quite easy to start using possessive case in English. Examples, which are presented below, will help to understand even better.

example	translation
look! It's my brother 's wife!	Look! This is my brother's wife!
These women 's recommendations are awful.
The piece of cheese on the table is yours.	The piece of cheese on the table is yours.
John and Bob 's suites are new.	John and Bob's costumes are new.
my uncle 's friends are outside.

The possessive case in English also has names Possessive Case or Genetive Case. If you want to say that something belongs to someone, you must use exactly possessive. As a rule, the possessive case can only be used with animate nouns, but there are some exceptions,
which we will discuss below. By the way, I also have a wonderful one for testing knowledge on the possessive case. If you are looking for possessive exercises -

In English, the possessive case is expressed with ‘s (apostrophe es) or simply " (apostrophe).

Prince's duty - the duty (of whom? Whose?) of the prince;

Students' books - textbooks (of whom? Whose?) of students.

As you have noticed, it is convenient to translate phrases containing the possessive case from the end.

Formation of the possessive case in English.

just an apostrophe (‘) in the following cases:

1. with plural nouns, if the plural is formed by adding the ending -S /-ES

• doctors' advice - doctors' advice,
• boys' trains - boys' trains.

1. with Greek polysyllabic given names and surnames ending in -S

• Socrates' works - the works of Socrates,
• Xerxes' army - the army of Xerxes.

1. with well-known surnames ending in -S

• Yeats' poetry - Yeats' poetry,
• Burns'poems - Burns' poems

(however, some grammars allow a double spelling in such a case: Dickens' novels or Dickens' novels).

To form the possessive case, we will use only apostrophe es (‘s) in the following cases:

1. with singular nouns

• the girl's eyes - girl's eyes,
• the Dad's study - dad's study.

1. With plural nouns, if the plural was not formed according to the rule of adding the ending -S / -ES .

• children's games - children's games,
• women's wishes - women's desires.

Pay attention to education possessive case of compound nouns. Here there is a difference from the formation of the plural. Let's take a closer look at this point, since even very competent and knowledgeable people very often make mistakes on this issue. So let's look at the plate.

More examples:

The editor-in-chief's order - the order of the chief editor

The commander-in-chief's qualification - the qualification of the commander-in-chief

The passer-by's comment - passer-by's comment

A special feature of the possessive case in English is the existence of the so-called group possessive case - group genitive. Group genitive denotes the phenomenon of adding "s or ‘ not to one noun, but to

• group of nouns

Mum and dad's wish - the desire of mom and dad

• to a whole phrase containing a noun

the secretary of states’s private room - personal room of the secretary of state

• to group noun + pronoun

someone else's benefit - someone else's benefit

• to a phrase with a numeral at the end

in an hour or two's time - in an hour or two

Note. That in such cases "s or ‘ are added exclusively to end element. The only time you have to be careful is when it comes to belonging to multiple nouns.

We considered the phrase mum and dad's wish - the desire of mom and dad. In this context, we are talking about the common desire of dad and mom. In this case, "s or ‘ is added to the final element. If the phrase was a slightly different mum "s and dad's wishes in the meaning of the wishes of dad and mom (each has their own), then "s or ‘ would be added to each element.

So in the phrase Bach's and Mozart's music, we add "s" to each element, since Bach and Mozart do not have music in common - everyone has their own.

Uses of the possessive case in English.

We are not allowed to use Possessive Case in English in the same way as we use in Russian. Sometimes membership relationships need to be expressed using an of clause.

So, for example, we cannot say table "s leg - the leg of the table, we must say - the leg of the table.

So when can a genetive case be used?

The possessive case in English is used:

• with nouns denoting people and animals

the swallow's nest - swallow's nest

Molly's idea - Molly's idea

• with words denoting time or distance

night's rest - night rest

a month absence - monthly absence / month-long absence

a minute's silence - minute silence

a mile's distance - distance in a mile

Please note that with the words today, yesterday and tomorrow, both options for the formation of the possessive case are possible:

today's papers = the papers of today

• with names of countries and cities

Britain's museums - museums in Britain

London's sights - sights of London

• with newspaper titles

the Guardian's analysis

• with the names of organizations and with the words company, firm, government, organization

the company's plans - company plans

the Geographical Society's gold medal

• with the words world, country, nation, town, city

the nation's wealth - the welfare of the nation

• with the words ship, boat, car

the car's wheel - car wheel

• with names of planets and satellites

the sun "s rays - the sun's rays

• with some inanimate nouns in set expressions

Absolute Genitive and Double Genitive

Absolute Genitive

Typically, a construct containing a possessive case has the following structure:

Noun (numeral/pronoun) in the possessive case + noun

However, there are also cases where a noun in the possessive case is not followed by another noun. In such a case, we are dealing with absolute possessive case(Absolute genetive). It is used in several cases:

• to avoid repetition (tautology)

Our car is faster than Peter's.

• after the preposition of

A friend of my mother's, a cousin of my husband's

• for the names of shops, places and other establishments

At the butcher's, at the baker's, at Timothy's, at my uncle's

St. Paul's (Cathedral), St. James's (Palace)

Double Genitive

It is rare to find a noun defined by two consecutive phrases in the possessive case:

• My mother's father's people - my mother's father's people
• The boy's half-hour's run - the boy's half-hour run

A similar phenomenon is called the double possessive case - Double Genitive.

We are accustomed to the fact that in Russian it is enough to decline a word according to cases, thereby forming the context we need. But, what to do in a similar situation with English, where there is practically no case system? First, here the syntactic meaning of a word is always determined by its place in the sentence. And secondly, there are as many as three case categories, but not all of them play a really significant role. In today's material, we will consider how cases are formed in English, what parts of speech they correspond to, and what function they perform.

First, let's find out what this section of grammar is. Case is a term denoting the syntactic role of a sentence member or the semantic meaning of a word in a phrase. In simple terms, case determines the dependence of one word on another. The corresponding case in the sentence expresses the subject, object, definition.

Russian grammar allows you to apply this term to a noun, pronoun, adjective, participle, numeral. But in English, cases can occur only in two parts of speech: a noun and a pronoun. Moreover, they bring more changes to the class of pronouns. Consider the English case system.

Cases in English

Since English uses a fixed word order, the role of cases is somewhat crumpled and not always actively expressed. But this is no reason not to consider their construction and use. On the contrary, for confident use of the language, you need to be able to work with any grammatical constructions, and the category of case is no exception. Let's ask ourselves: how many cases are there in English? Officially three, but only two are singled out. We will analyze a three-level classification.

Subject category (Subjective)

Translated into Russian, this is the most common nominative case, which emphasizes that the noun / pronoun acts as a subject. This grammatical construction does not differ in anything remarkable: both nouns and pronouns are used in it in their usual dictionary form.

• She is my best friendShe ismybestfriend.
• Peter is a clever boyPeter -smartboy.
• Children read the bookChildrenreadbook.

The second case in English is much more peculiar.

Object category (Objective)

This is the so-called indirect case. In this case, nouns/pronouns are not actors/objects, but objects of these actions. Accordingly, in the sentence, this construction is associated with the role of the complement.

When translated into Russian, depending on the context, words can be put into the genitive, dative, proposed and accusative cases. It is noteworthy that nouns still do not change their construction, and most personal pronouns receive a completely new form.

Subject	An object	Transformation
I	Me	i ⟶ me, me
You	You	you, you ⟶ you, you, you, you
He	Him	he ⟶ him, him
She	Her	she ⟶ her, her
It	It	it ⟶ him, him, this, this, her, her (inanimate)
We	Us	we ⟶ us, us
They	Them	they ⟶ them, us

The pronoun who (who?), Which turns into whom (whom? To whom?), Is also subject to changes.

• Give me a pen, pleaseGiveto me,please,handle.
• I told them the truth-Isaidthemthe truth.
• The boy bought a ball – Boyboughtball.

These two case categories in the case of nouns are combined into one common case, because in their composition there are still no changes, and the syntactic role to a greater extent is always determined by the location of the word. A separate and most specific case is the third group.

Possessive category

The most important type of case in English . It is a meaningful construction that not only expresses the role of a noun/pronoun, but also changes its composition.

The class of pronouns is also transformed into new forms.

The task of these forms and endings, as well as the case group as a whole, is to show belonging to someone or possessing something, and also to describe, tell what kind of person / object it is. The parts of speech of this category are always in front of the word being defined, so it finally controls the position of the member of the sentence. And this is another exceptional feature of this category.

• This is Liz' s mirror-itLisinomirror.
• These are my children 's pictures-Thesedrawingsmychildren.

Accordingly, the syntactic role of such constructions is definition.

And the last important nuance of this group: as a rule, possessive endings are attached only to the animate class of nouns. But there are exceptions to this law. Let's consider them in more detail.

Grammar note: in constructions associated with dedication, the erection of something in honor of someone, the possessive form is not used: theLermontovmonument.

It is noteworthy that in addition to its own case system, English grammar has other possibilities for noun declension. Next, we will learn how to form cases in English using function words.

Prepositions as cases

Prepositions and cases actually have a lot in common even in Russian. Remember that many of them are used only with certain cases and are a kind of markers for these cases. But prepositions in English not only indicate the case, but also help to form it. Consider such cases with specific examples, and the table below will help us in this.

Prepositions	Conformity	Examples	Translation
Of, from	whom? what? - possessive form of inanimate. noun, genitive	I got a postcard from my grandparents. The cover of the book was made of cardboard.	I received a postcard from my grandma and my grandpa. Cover of this book was made from cardboard.
By, with	as? how? with the help of whom/what? who/what? instrumental case	I cut the rope with a knife. The computer was bought by my son. This novel was written by Walter Scott.	I cut this rope knife. This computer was purchased my son. This novel was written Walter Scott.
about, of	about what? about whom? prepositional	I'm thinking of moving to Poland. I was talking about this film with my friend.	I'm thinking about moving to Poland. I was talking about this movie with my friend.
To, for	to whom? what? for whom, if it can be translated as the dative case	I want to say something to you. He wrote a fairy tale for his daughter.	I want to tell you something. He wrote his daughter fairy tale.

Now we have analyzed all the possible ways of declension of English words. Having mastered this material, we not only learned how to put nouns in the right form, but also got acquainted with many common stable constructions. This means that with each lesson we are getting better at understanding the shades of English speech. See you in new classes!

What is a fall? This is a category in grammar that represents the relation of a noun to other words in a sentence. We are talking today about what role it plays and how the possessive case of nouns in English is formed.

Language history

Case is an essential "attribute" of a noun. In ancient times, Old English was rich in cases. It contained nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and instrumental cases. However, its descendant - modern English, cannot boast of such a quantity. In his "arsenal" there are only two cases - common (Common case) and possessive (Possessive case).

Meaning

It is not difficult to guess the meaning of the possessive case. The name speaks for itself: "to attract" - to belong. In other words, it reflects the belonging of an object, quality or attribute to another object:

• The boy's ball - The boy's ball (the boy owns the ball);
• The doctor's pen - Doctor's pen (the pen belongs to the doctor);
• The driver's car - The driver's car (the car belongs to the driver).

It should be noted that only animate nouns have the form of the possessive case in English (boy - boy, doctor - doctor, driver - driver). If we are talking about the belonging of one object to another inanimate object, then the construction with the preposition of is used (the door of the car - the door of the car).

Education

As you can see from the examples above, possessive nouns in English are formed with an apostrophe (‘) and an ending (-s). The rule is simple and clear, but not without peculiarities and nuances. They are detailed in the following table:

rule	Examples
If the word ends with the letter s, then there are two options for attaching an apostrophe and ending -s	Robert Burns's poems - poems by Robert Burns Robert Burns' poems - poems by Robert Burns
Plural nouns form the possessive form with a single apostrophe	Pupils' desks - student desks Sisters' hats - sisters' hats Dogs' tails - dog tails
A number of nouns that are exceptions and do not form the plural according to the general rules, in the possessive case "acquire" an apostrophe and an ending	Men's suits - men's suits (men's suits) Women's dresses - women's dresses (women's dresses) People's passports - people's passports
If it is necessary to say that the object simultaneously belongs to two or more persons, then the apostrophe and the ending - s are used after the last	Father and mother's house - the house of the father and mother (they own the house jointly)
If the object belongs to two or more persons, but each separately, then the apostrophe and the ending -s are used after each noun	Tolstoy's and Dostoevsky's books - books by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (they wrote them separately from each other)
Compound nouns consisting of two lexemes add an apostrophe and an ending S to the stem of the last element in the group	ticket inspector's rules - ticket inspector's rules

Inanimate nouns denoting distance and time can be in the possessive form (six months' trip - a six-month trip, a night's walk - a night walk). Exceptions also include combinations consisting of the names of cities, countries, the words Earth (Earth), world (world), nature (nature), ship (ship): world's end - the end of the world, nature's protection - protection of nature.