English Experts

Thaís disse:

And how would i be to write “O livro da Thaís” since Thaís ends with an “s”? Would it be “Thaís’ book”?

Nuclear Winter disse:

Great post. :)

Jefferson Alves disse:

Perfect post, I love, helped me very, very really. I don’t imagine that.

Thanks *-*

Karina disse:

seria bom se esse texto fosse traduzido p/ o português, pois eu ainda não tenho muita noção de inglês!
genetive cases sempre me confunde

Ashley Smith disse:

Hi Mary, yes, it does sound very strange to say “the book’s title”. I don’t think you would hear a native speaker of English saying this. In fact, if you were to “google” “book’s title” you would see that it says “você quis dizer the book title”. The book title is ok, the title of the book is more common, but the book’s title, no. Think of it this way, a book is an inanimate object, so it cannot possess anything. Does that help?

leandro disse:

Very good !

thanks

Ashley Smith disse:

Que bom que esse blog clarificou o genitive case para você, Rafaella! É por isso que eu fiz.

Mary disse:

In addition, I found this example: “Singular possessive
The possessive form of a singular noun is an apostrophe followed by the letter “s.”

Kramer’s hair
Daphne’s patience
the car’s engine” at http://www.meredith.edu/grammar/plural.htm#and%20x .

Both ‘car’ and ‘dress’ in the examples from Strunk’s style manual and the grammar page which cites (Bedford 36a/Hodges’ 15a) confirm the use of ‘s after inanimate nouns to show possession.

Mary disse:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=235314 further explains:

“When speaking of the type of handle used for a door, you would say the door handle. But the door’s handle could be used when speaking of a particular door–that is, when the with the emphasis on the door itself–as in, Not only did it need to be stripped and repainted, but the door’s handle was rusty.

It’s not appropriate to refer to the door as an “owner” of the handle, as you imply in your message. The term possessive case is thus misleading: Using the term genitive case instead helps one to avoid the myth that the marker ‘s cannot be used with inanimate objects. As Kenneth G. Wilson points out, in his Columbia Guide to Standard American English under the article Descriptive Genitive, “In fact, the genitive case–in English as in Latin before it–has always had many more purposes than simply indicating possession, and descriptive (and other nonpossessive) genitives are and long have been Standard English.” Wilson gives as examples of the descriptive genitive the mountain’s top and a day’s pay.”

Ale Santiago disse:

Thank you very much! Really helpful!

Rafael Nogueira disse:

Thanks!

That’s a grammar rule I was in doubt.

Robson disse:

I would like to know if I need to use S after apostrophe in these cases, or is the same rule of plural ending in S.

My boss’s car/ My boss’ car.
The waitress’s job/ The waitress’ job.

Robson disse:

So, the sentense: “My boss car” is correct? Shouldn’t I use at least an apostrophe? Like: My boss’ car.

Thanks! See you!