Proper Possessives

7/27/2019 Proper Possessives

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Grammar Power

I can show respect for myreaders and for my own

ideas by writing in formal

American English.


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Overview

Things or qualities can belong to nouns.

Nouns are marked for possession either by use of anapostrophe (for most plural nouns and nouns that end ins) or an apostrophe s (s) for all other nouns.

The substitute for a noun in a sentence is a called apronoun.

There is a normal set of pronouns to substitute for nouns,

and there is a special set of pronouns to show possession. Possessive pronouns NEVER take an apostrophe.

Unfortunately, some of them are confusing because theyare extremely similar to words that have nothing

whatsoever to do with them.


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You know this rabbit.

Its Bugs Bunny,

and that is the

rabbits carrot,

orBugss carrot.

Its his carrot; the

carrot belongs to him.I put an extra s after the apostrophe,

even though the name Bugs ends in an s.

This is a judgment call, but it ONLY pertains

to proper nouns (names).

I do it because thats how its spoken aloud.


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What about these . . . ladies?

They are lifting their

skirts

the ladies skirts.The skirts belong to them.

To mark a plural noun for possession,

form the normal plural (usually either

with an s or by changing a yto anies) and then put the apostrophe after

it. If you say this word aloud, it sounds

different from Bugss.


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Irregular plural formation

If you want to call them

women instead ofladies,

you need an s:

thewomens skirts.

The word woman, like the words man, child

and (usually)person, is not marked as plural byadding an s. So you just mark their plural

forms for possession by adding an s, the

same way you would for the singular form.


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This bird has no gender.

It does have a beanie,

however. That is

the birds beanie, orTweetys beanie.

It is its beanie;

the beanie belongs to it.

Its is like his,hers or their. It is a possessive pronoun.

It never takes an apostrophe.


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To apostrophe or not to apostrophe

Noun - apostrophe forpossession:

Tweetysor the

birds

Possessive Pronoun -no apostrophe: its


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Homophones/Homographs

Homophones are words that sound alike but havedifferent meanings and may be spelled differently.

Homographs are words than have the same spellingbut different meanings.

Its and its are homophones AND homographs. Butits is a possessive pronoun, while its is a contractionfor the verb phrase it is. Thats why its easy toconfuse its and its.

Just remember that its is like his and hers. Sinceyoure not using Tweetys name or a regular nounphrase like the bird, its has no apostrophe.

Other possessive pronouns have homophones, too.


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More homophones with possessive

pronouns . . .

Sylvester and Tweety

wouldnt normally hang.

But right now,

theyre reading

theirbooks

together. The books

belong to them.

The two homophones on this slide are theyre (the contraction for they are)

and their(the possessive pronoun for them.)


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. . . and another homophone . . .

Bugs and Daffy

say:

Weare riding

in ourcar.

The subject pronoun we and its verb are can be

contracted to were; but the possessive pronoun

ourcannot be in a contraction.


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. . . and another . . .

Is the poody-tat

here

or

there?Hes up here now.

Soon he will be

down there.

An easy way to remember the difference

between indicator there and possessive

pronoun theiris that the indicator there

has the indicator here inside it.


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And the most important

homophone of all . . .

saidyourfavorite Loony Tunes

duck in days ofyore.

As the old saying goes, Grammar is the difference between

knowing your s**t and knowing youre s**t.


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What if I want to use their names?

Sylvester and Tweetyis a noun phrase.

Well get deeper into noun phrases (as well as verb

phrases and adjective phrases) later on.

For now, all you need to know is that a noun phrasecan be marked for possession with ONE apostrophe:

Sylvester andTweetys adventures.

You can also mark a noun phrase for possession byusing the preposition of:

the adventures of Sylvester and Tweety.


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In-Class Exercises

1. Annalies thought about ______ knowledge of formal English.

2. _____ more complicated than I thought to figure out ____

ins and outs, she said.3. All of the student____ brains must work overtime to learn

about possessive pronouns.

4. When _________ ready to work on _______ grammar, thetopic____ intricacies will no longer befuddle them.

5. The difficulties ___ possessives will disappear, and ____mystery will change to mastery.

6. Annalies___ grammar power is growing by leaps and bounds.


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Summary

Singular nouns and proper nouns, as well as irregularly-formed pluralnouns and noun phrases that end in singular nouns, are marked forpossession with s. (For proper nouns that end in s, this is a judgmentcall.)

Regularly-formed plural nouns are marked for possession with anapostrophe only.

The singular possessive pronouns are my, your, his, her/hers and its.

The singular possessive pronoun its is a homophone and a homographwith the contracted verb phrase its. The singular possessive pronoun

youris a homophone with the contracted verb phrase youre. The plural possessive pronoun theiris a homophone with the indicator

there and the contracted verb phrase theyre.

The preposition ofcan also be used to mark a noun or noun phrase forpossession.

Documents

Proper Possessives