Possessive case of nouns in English briefly. Nouns in the general case with the preposition TO. Pronunciation of words in the possessive case

noun in English language has two cases: Common Case and Possessive Case.

Common case have all nouns; this is the form in which it is given in the dictionary. In the common case, the noun has no special ending.

noun in possessive case denotes belonging, answers the question Whose? - Whose? and serves as a definition in relation to another noun.

Form possessive case usually have animate nouns that denote a living being to which some object, quality or attribute belongs. It is formed by the ending -s, preceded by an apostrophe: the girl girl— the girl 's bag girls bag. If the noun is expressed in plural, formed in the classical way, namely, by adding the ending -s or -es, then only added apostrophe -ʼ: her relatives' house- the house of her relatives.

According to the rules of English grammar, a noun in the possessive case takes place before the noun of which it serves as a modifier. It is transmitted into Russian through Genitive or possessive adjective. Shown below various ways Possessive case expressions in English.

A noun can serve definition to another noun and in the case when it stands before it in the general case, that is, without any change in its form. Such a noun is translated into Russian by an adjective or noun in one of the indirect cases: cane sugar cane sugar, sugar cane sugar cane , life insurance life insurance, payment agreement payment agreement, cotton market cotton market, tin trade tin trade.

In many cases, a noun is preceded by not one, but two or more nouns as a modifier. Some of them are translated into Russian adjectives, and others — nouns in one of the indirect cases: home market prices domestic market prices, meat price decrease reduction in meat prices. Accordingly, if a sentence contains several nouns in a row, the last one is the main one, and the previous ones are its definitions: state power system —system state power.

Noun with antecedent numeral, which serves as a definition, is usually in singular form: the five-year plan five year plan, a ten-year old girl ten year old girl, a ten-pound note ten pound note.

Join us onFacebook!

See also:

We suggest taking tests online:

A noun in English can be in the possessive case. This design is quite common and beginners need to get acquainted with it. The article is divided into two parts:

You can find out the rest of the information about the noun in English from the reference book.

1. Possessive case of a noun (basic level)

1.1. Possessive case - designation:

noun – noun (answers the question Who? What?)
noun 's– noun in the possessive case (answers the question whose?)

EXAMPLES
father 's hat - daddy's hat
Natasha 's book - Natasha book
the bird 's nest - avian nest

1.2. Possessive noun = possessive pronoun

In English, a noun in the possessive case can be replaced possessive pronoun:

Remember, once an adjective in English is placed before a noun, then and possessive noun must also be placed before the noun.

1.3. The construction with the preposition OF replaces a noun in the possessive case

A noun in the possessive case can ALWAYS be replaced by construction with the preposition of. and answers question of whom? what?: capital of (what?) Russia = the capital of Russia.

[master ’S subject = subject of master

EXAMPLES
my father 's hat (daddy's hat) = a hat of my father (hat) (whom?) my dad)
Natasha 's book (Natasha's book) = a book of Natasha (Natasha's book)
the man 's cap (cannot be translated) = a cap of the man (man's cap)

1.4. Possessive case of nouns in singular and plural:

If there are several owners (owners), then the ending is added to the noun plural-S, but then in the possessive case (after the apostrophe) S – Let's clean it up!

EXPLANATION
brother 's books - the owner of books is one - brother
brothers ’ books - there are several owners of the book - brothers

Exceptional nouns (men, women, policemen, sportsmen, children and others - ) form the possessive case in the usual way:
EXAMPLES
the men 's cars - men's cars
the children 's toys – children's toys

1.5. A noun in the possessive case answers the question Whose? —Whose?

When answering, we can omit the noun after 's:
Whose cap is this? – It is the boy's cap. or It is the boy's.
Whose caps are these? – They are the boys’caps. or They are the boys'.

2. Possessive case in English (advanced level)

2.1. Group of words in the possessive case

A group of words can be in the possessive case:
my elder brother Peter’s son - the son of my elder brother
Peter and Helen’s flat - Peter and Helen’s apartment

Sometimes there are even such constructions: What’s Susan’s brother’s name? – What is the name of Susan's brother?

2.2. Nouns that cannot be used in the possessive case

As a rule, only animate nouns, i.e. design the table's legs unacceptable.

Exceptions: inanimate nouns that are used in the possessive case

Note: In dedications the possessive case is not used:
the Pushkin Monument, the Kennedy Center,
the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Tate Gallery

2.3. Noun as adjective

Sometimes, instead of a noun in the possessive case, you can simply see noun, which also performs adjective function.

Remember: sometimes a noun (usually singular) standing before another noun does not require the possessive case, since it answers a question Which? but not whose?

EXAMPLES
a kitchen table - kitchen table
a newspaper article - newspaper article
a television program - television program
health problems - health problems
garden vegetables - garden vegetables

But
men's clothes
women's room - a women's room
children's magazine - a children's magazine

English, being an analytical language, does not distinguish between by and large, cases, since nouns do not have endings (the exception is the ending in number). All relationships between words in a sentence are conveyed through prepositions.
However, in grammar it is generally accepted that the English language still has two cases - common (in fact, 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 my friend's sisters.

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 a modifier of the noun that comes after it. The word in the possessive case answers the question “Whose”?

We decided to rephrase this wonderful definition a little and make it more understandable:

The possessive case denotes “owner” (a word with apostrophe or preposition of) object or phenomenon (following word). It turns out that:

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

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

a leg of the table= table- owner (that’s why there is a preposition before the word of, expressing the meaning “whose?”), and leg- what belongs to the table.

Formation of the possessive case

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

Animate nouns

The possessive case can be formed animate nouns by adding ‘s singular. Let's call this “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 by the word (“owner - object”).

In plural we only add apostrophe ‘. The form of the word itself already has an ending -s/ -es. Conglomeration large quantity Hissing words are not welcome in English:

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

There are a number of nouns that form their plural by changing their 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 the possessive case by resorting to preposition of- we will call this the “prepositional” form. IN in this case“owner” stands after a 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 case traditional way - 's. These words can be grouped according to the following characteristics:

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 - cost

2. nouns denoting celestial bodies:

sun's rays

3. collective nouns relating to groups or communities of people/ pronouns replacing 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 where 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 a possessive pronoun, which can replace a noun.

P.S. Words in the possessive case have the same properties as possessive pronouns and replace the article. If “owners” are two or more words, apostrophe joins the latter:

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

Although 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

A moment like, occupies far from the last place in grammar textbooks. Without this theme, how can we talk about the ownership of something? You can still somehow deal with inanimate nouns, but what about in other cases? First things first...

Possessive case rules in English

As you know, Possessive case rules in English are needed to express the ownership of an object to a certain 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 object belongs to a plural noun (formed according to the rules, using –s), then you only need to add an apostrophe to this word.

For example: my sisters ’ house – my sisters' house

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 an apostrophe and –s are added to the last noun.

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

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 friendly with an apostrophe + -s. The pretext we know will help here of.

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

Possessive case in English. Examples

Agree, it’s not at all difficult to start using possessive case in English. Examples, which are presented below, will help you understand even better.

IN English grammar there is no system of cases similar to the Russian one, but there is a special case that has no analogue in Russian. More precisely, there are such constructions in our language, but they relate to a completely different part of speech - adjective. What is it? As you probably already guessed, today we will talk about the possessive case of nouns in English. Let's study this branch of the English language system and learn how to use it correctly by working on this skill with the help of an exercise.

In fact, English nominally has three case forms: subject, object and possessive. Why nominal? Because in practice, visible changes to the word occur only in the possessive case . The remaining two cases are a kind of marker for revealing the syntactic role of the word.

The subject form, as the name suggests, always belongs to the subject, that is, the subject performing the actions. The objective case of nouns indicates that these words play the role of a complement in a sentence. But, again, we repeat, this theoretical knowledge will be of little use in practice, because in both cases the noun will have the same dictionary form. Putting a noun in the possessive case is another matter. Here the form changes, and a special grammatical sign appears. But we'll talk about this in more detail in the next section.

Meaning and formation of the possessive form

To express the belonging of objects to a person or other entity, the possessive form of words is used. In Russian it is given by adjectives, and in English by nouns. There are several ways to form this case.

Singular

Singular words are characterized by two constructions. If, we're talking about about the description of an animate person, then the stem of the word undergoes changes: an apostrophe ‘ and ending s are added to its ending.

• Sheneeds Jack 's phonenumber – She needs Jack's phone number.
• Itis mother 's birthdaytoday - Today is mother's birthday.

This rule applies even when words end in –s or similar sounds.

• Liz 's exercisesweresimpler – Lisa’s exercises were simpler.
• It is hard, but it is such an actress's life –Thishard,Butthat's how it islifeactresses.
• It is Mr. Fox's letter -ThisletterMr.Fox.

It is important to note that this ending has different options pronunciation. When it is preceded by a voiceless consonant, it is read as Russian S, and if the last letter of the stem is a voiced consonant or vowel, then s is pronounced as Russian Z. A separate case is when the word ends in –s and similar combinations (-sh, - ch, -se, -x). In such a situation, the ending is voiced in Russian IZ. For quick memorization these rules, it is recommended to do short exercises to read the examples aloud with correct pronunciation.

As for the inanimate category, it is possible to form the possessive case of nouns in English only with the help of a preposition. Let us immediately note that there are several exceptions from the total, but they will be discussed separately.

For most inanimate nouns, the possessive construction consists of several components.

• I forgot the end (1) of (2) the story (3) – Iforgotendthisstories.

Let's look at a few more examples to test this scheme.

• This page of the book is yellow –Thispagebooksyellow.
• I heard the sound of the train – Iheardsoundtrains.
• My friend sat at the end of the hall – MyFriendsatVendhall

Plural

For animate nouns, the formation of possessive forms has some nuances.

Those words that already have the ending –s in the plural, when putting them in the possessive case, add only an apostrophe to the ending of the stem.

• There are boys' toys in the box –INthisboxlietoysboys.
• The actresses' dresses are very expensive –DressesactressesVeryexpensive.
• The Browns' house was built in 1986 –HouseBrownswasbuiltin 1986.

Nouns that have a special plural form form the possessive form using the combination '+s.

• There are a lot of women's shops in the street –Onthisstreeta bunch ofwomen'sshops.
• He bought the deer's horns at the souvenir shop –INsouvenirshopHeboughtthesedeerhorns.
• The children's pictures are simple and bright –Thesechildren'sdrawingssimpleAndbright.

The possessive case of inanimate nouns is identical in construction to the singular form.

• The legs of the chairs were broken –Legsthesechairswerebroken.
• I often walk on the roofs of the buildings – IoftenI'm walkingByroofsbuildings.
• My wife likes the flowers of the fields – mywifelike itfieldflowers.

As can be seen from the examples, the formation of possessive forms does not cause any particular difficulties. But before solving the exercises, it is necessary to understand the exceptions already mentioned.

Possessive case of nouns in English - table of exceptions

Historically, some inanimate nouns form possessive forms according to the type of animate persons, i.e. adding an apostrophe and s. Let's look at such situations using a table.

Now we have fully examined the construction of the possessive case of nouns and are prepared to successfully complete the practical exercise. See you in new classes!