In English, possessive words or phrases exist for nouns and most pronouns, as well as some noun phrases. These can play the roles of determiners (also called possessive adjectives when corresponding to a pronoun) or of nouns.
For nouns, noun phrases, and some pronouns, the possessive is generally formed with the suffix -s, but in some cases just with the addition of an apostrophe to an existing s. This form is sometimes called the Saxon genitive, reflecting the suffix's derivation from Old English. However, personal pronouns have irregular possessives that do not use an apostrophe, such as its, and most of them have different forms for possessive determiners and possessive pronouns, such as my and mine or your and yours.
Possessives are one of the means by which genitive constructions are formed in modern English, the other principal one being the use of the preposition of. It is sometimes stated that the possessives represent a grammatical case, called the genitive or possessive case; however, some linguists do not accept this view and regard the s ending as either a phrasal affix, an edge affix, or a clitic, rather than as a case ending.
Formation of possessive construction Nouns and noun phrases The possessive form of an English noun or noun phrase is made by suffixing a morpheme represented orthographically as s (pronounced the same as the regular plural ending (e)s: namely, as when following a sibilant sound (, , , , or ), as when following any other voiceless consonant (, , , , , or ), and as otherwise. For example: Mitch has the possessive Mitch's luck has the possessive luck's man has the singular possessive man's and the plural possessive men's
A plural noun ending in -s only adds the apostrophe (for example: Peasants' Revolt) and retains the unmarked plural pronunciation (peasants and peasants both //). A singular noun ending in -s (or -z in another sibilant -z or -x sound; or -se, -ze, -ce or -xe: example, Verreaux's eagle), is traditionally also spelled by adding only an apostrophe (despite often being pronounced distinctly): the possessive of cats is cats, both forms being pronounced the possessive of James is spelled James's and pronounced with the additional syllable -, but the possessive of Jesus is usually Jesus and pronounced . Singular nouns ending in s also form a possessive regularly by adding s, as in Charles's or the boss's. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends this style while stating that just an apostrophe (e.g. Jesus is also correct. The Associated Press Stylebook recommends the s's style for nouns other than proper nouns, but only if the following word does not begin with s. The Elements of Style and the Canadian Press Stylebook prefer the form of s's with the exception of Biblical and classical proper names (Jesus' teachings, Augustus' guards) and common phrases that do not take the extra syllabic s (e.g. "for goodness' sake").The Elements of StyleThe Canadian Press Stylebook, 14th Edition. . For more on style guidance for this and other issues relating to the construction of possessives in English, see possessive apostrophe.
The s morpheme is attached to the last word of a noun phrase, whether or not that is its head noun. For example, the phrase the king of Spain forms the possessive the king of Spain's, and – in informal style – the phrase the man we saw yesterday can form the man we saw yesterday's. But co-ordinate nouns may each be marked or only the last: John's and Laura's house and John and Laura's house are correct, though the latter is more common, especially in idiomatic speech. See below.
Pronouns Unlike other noun phrases which only have a single possessive form, personal pronouns in English have two possessive forms: possessive determiners (used to form noun phrases such as "her success") and possessive pronouns (used in place of nouns as a subject or object, as in "Hers is better", "I prefer hers", or as a predicate pronoun, as in "the success was hers"). In most cases, these are different from each other.
For example, the pronoun I has possessive determiner my and possessive pronoun mine; you has your and yours; while he has his for both; she has her and hers; while it has its for both; we has our and ours; they has their and theirs. The archaic thou has thy and thine. For a full table and further details, see English personal pronouns.
The possessive its has no apostrophe, although it is sometimes written with one in error (see hypercorrection) by confusion with the common possessive ending -'s and the contraction it's used for it is and it has. Possessive its was originally formed with an apostrophe in the 17th century, but it had been dropped by the early 19th century, presumably on the pattern of the apostrophe being omitted from personal possessive pronouns.
The interrogative and relative pronoun who has the possessive whose. In its relative use, whose can also refer to inanimate antecedents, but its interrogative use always refers to persons.
Other pronouns that form possessives (mainly indefinite pronouns) do so in the same way as nouns, with 's, for example one's, somebody's (and somebody else's). Certain pronouns, such as the common demonstratives this, that, these, and those, do not form their possessives using s; instead, of this, of that, etc. are used.
English possessive pronouns agree with the gender of their antecedent or referent, whereas in other languages, such as Italian, the possessive pronoun agrees with the gender of the head noun of the noun phrase in which it appears. To exemplify these differences, compare he loved his mother, in which his is masculine in agreement with he, to ama sua madre, in which sua is feminine in agreement with madre (mother).
Syntactic functions of possessive words or phrases English possessives play two principal roles in syntax: the role of possessive determiners (more popularly called possessive adjectives; see ) standing before a noun, as in my house or John's two sisters; the role of possessive pronouns (although they may not always be called that), standing independently in place of a noun, as in mine is large; they prefer John's.
As determiners Possessive noun phrases such as "John's" can be used as determiners. When a form corresponding to a personal pronoun is used as a possessive determiner, the correct form must be used, as described above (my rather than mine, etc.).
Possessive determiners are not used in combination with articles or other definite determiners. For example, it is not correct to say *the my hat, *a my hat or *this my hat; an alternative is provided in the last two cases by the "double genitive" as described in the following section – a hat of mine (also one of my hats), this hat of mine. Possessive determiners can nonetheless be combined with certain quantifiers, as in my six hats (which differs in meaning from six of my hats). See English determiners for more details.
A possessive adjective can be intensified with the word own, which can itself be either an adjective or a pronoun: my own (bed), John's own (bed).
In some expressions the possessive has itself taken on the role of a noun modifier, as in cow's milk (used rather than cow milk). It then no longer functions as a determiner; adjectives and determiners can be placed before it, as in the warm cow's milk, where idiomatically the and warm now refer to the milk, not to the cow.
Possessive relationships can also be expressed periphrastically, by preceding the noun or noun phrase with the preposition of, although possessives are usually more idiomatic where a true relationship of possession is involved. Some examples: the child's bag might also be expressed as the bag of the child our cats' mother might be expressed as the mother of our cats the system's failure might be expressed as the failure of the system Another alternative in the last case may be the system failure, using system as a noun adjunct rather than a possessive – this is common when the possessor is more abstract in character.
As pronouns Possessives can also play the role of nouns or pronouns; namely they can stand alone as a noun phrase, without qualifying a noun. In this role they can function as the subject or object of verbs, or as a complement of prepositions. When a form corresponding to a personal pronoun is used in this role, the correct form must be used, as described above (mine rather than my, etc.).
Examples: I'll do my work, and you do yours. (here yours is a possessive pronoun, meaning "your work", and standing as the object of the verb do) My car is old, Mary's is new. (here Mary's means "Mary's car" and stands as the subject of its clause) Your house is nice, but I prefer to stay in mine. (here mine means "my house", and is the complement of the preposition in)
Double genitive
The genitive can be combined with an of construction to produce what is often called a double genitive, as in the following examples: an officer/Of the prefectes (Chaucer The Second Nun's Tale, lines 368-369; in Modern English an officer of the prefect's) that hard heart of thine (Venus and Adonis, line 500) this extreme exactness of his (Sterne, Tristram Shandy, chapter 1.IV) that poor mother of mine (Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, chapter I) and uses of the title Mother of Mine, Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's is a Friend of Mine, and frequent uses of the title Friend of Mine a picture of the king's (that is, a picture owned by the king, as distinct from a picture of the king – a picture in which the king is portrayed)
Some object to the name double genitive because the "of" clause is not a genitive. Alternative names are "oblique genitive", "post-genitive", "cumulative genitive", "pleonastic genitive", and "double possessive".
Some writers have stigmatized this usage. However, it has a history in careful English. "Moreover, in some sentences the double genitive offers the only way to express what is meant. There is no substitute for it in a sentence such as That's the only friend of yours that I've ever met, since sentences such as That's your only friend that I've ever met and That's your only friend, whom I've ever met are not grammatical." Cf. "That's the only one of your friends that I've ever met" "[T]he construction is confined to human referents: compare a friend of the Gallery / no fault of the Gallery."page 162 under the heading double genitive in
The Oxford English Dictionary says that this usage was "Originally partitive, but subseq[uently became a] ... simple possessive ... or as equivalent to an appositive phrase ...".
Nested possessive Because a possessive is itself a determiner phrase, possessives can be nested arbitrarily deep, as in Lincoln's Doctor's Dog or *John's friend's mother's ... lawyer's brother.
Subject complements When they are used as subject complements, as in this is mine and that pen is John's, the intended sense may be either that of a predicate pronoun or of a predicate adjective; however, their form (mine, yours, etc.) in this case is the same as that used in other sentences for possessive pronouns.
Use of whose The following sentences illustrate the uses of whose: As the possessive of interrogative who: Whose pen is this? Whose do you prefer? For whose good are we doing it? As the possessive of relative who (normally only as determiner, not pronoun): There is the man whose pen we broke. She is the woman in whose garden we found you. As the possessive of relative which (again, normally only as determiner): It is an idea whose time has come (preferably to ...of which the time has come); . . . chariots whose wheels were fitted into holes in the grave floor
Semantics