3 20 Possessive with ‘s or of? The National Gallery's portrait of King Charles by Van Dyck nN P ~ Possessive ‘s ‘We usually use the possessive 5 (and not the of structure): +o refer to people and animals (especially with proper nouns), and to personal/professional relationships and human qualities to refer to general ownership, or possession of somebody's horne to refer to location in time (but not with dates) to refer to the origin of something, for example where it comes from or who made it to refer to a quantity or measure, for example of duration, distance or value in expressions for value/quantity with worth with the names of shops, companies and people/places that provide a service in certain fixed expressions Noun + of + noun Sheila is Harold's youngest daughter. Do you lke Snap’s new collar? Have you met the boss's new secretary? John's intransigence is a pein Have you seen Sheila's new car? We'llbe at Mum's soon. (= Mum's house) Have you seen the poem in today’s ‘Observer’? veh en Oilis Saudi Arabia’ biggest export ‘Hamlet’ is Shakespeare's most famous play. Have you read the committee's report yet? There vail be an hour's delay The hotel was ten minutes’ drive from the beach, Could you give me a pound's worth of chips? ‘Ym getting the Thanksgiving shopping at Macy's {= Magy’ department store) Was there anything nice at the butcher's this morning? (& the butchers shop} ‘She was at death's door For pity's sake! For goodness’ sake! We usually use the of structure (and not the possessive ‘5) in the following situations: ‘when we refer to inanimate things and with abstract nouns (e.g. science) ‘when the noun is followed by a prepositional phrase or clause ‘which defines it ‘when we refer to a specific year or date with Jong or complex phrases, even ‘wen we ate referring to people in certain fixed expressions and titles We set up our base camp at the bottom of the mountain. ve been studying the philosophy of science. The players ignored the jeers of the people standing in the front row. twas destroyed in the fre of 1666 A man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an English tourist, Monice Cantwell He's the President of the United States The Prince of Wales is to visit Iceland,3 Either ’s or of structure We can usually use either the possessive ‘5 or the of structure: ‘with human creations such as countries, Plane trees are @ common sight on London's streets. SR lage a MCN: ane res are a common soft onthe sets Cees neeeemino) ee to refer to a quality that something possesses 4 yer amazed bythe ship's sheer see Fee amare) a Wire sad the eran or Se eae eee a 7 something, its topic debate, ie ele ecnnle The portrait af the Queen has caused much s discussion and debate. ‘to express a reason or purpose with sake We agreed to stay for the sake of the (but note exceptions in 3.1) — children [for the ct sake, EEEEMEEIS The of structure is much more common than the possessive in academic and formal writing. 4 Combining different possessive patterns ‘The possessive ‘s and the of structure can describe different types of relationships between nouns: Do possessive 5 origin, owner or creator ‘of + noun —subjéct or topic ‘We can use them together to give several pieces of information in the same sentence: One of our most popular exhibits is Van Dyck’s portrait of King Charles. (Van Dyck = the creator of the portrait + possessive ‘s) (King Charles = the subject/topic of the portrait ~ of structure) AL We don’t use the possessive ' to describe the topic of something: ¥ I wasn’t convinced by the witness’s description of the quarrel. (the witness = the person who made the description; the quarrel = the topic of the description) We can also use possessive forms with prepositions to describe a number of different relationships: for subec [orepostion eg by scresion Have you seen (te NationaliGANeA?S) portrait (of Ring(ChaHes \bpiVanl Dyck? 5 New information with the of form ‘We can use the of form to put new information at the end of a sentence. Compare: Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for many years, [She is assassinated politician Aung San’s daughter.) ¥ She is the daughter of assassinated politician Aung San. (The new information is the reference to Aung San.) 23 rossessive wir son or 1 22 Practice Choose the correct option, A or B, to complete the sentences. if both options are correct, choose both. Listen and check. 1 What did you do . A at the course's end? B at the end of the course? 2 Have you met A Sams new assistant? B the new assistant of Sam? 3 ..,... sa constant source of inspiration. ‘A Barcelona's architecture B The architecture of Barcelona 4. Ill wait for you outside .. A the doctor's surgery. B the surgery of the doctor. 5. Some rubbish got caught under A the conveyor belt's wheels. B the wheels of the conveyor belt. 6 Our organisation strives towards... A poverty’s elimination. B the elimination of poverty. 7 The Ninth Symphony is arguably A Beethoven's greatest work. B the greatest work of Beethoven. 8 .....is the search for personal fulfilment in a hostile world, ‘A The novel's theme B The theme of the novel 9 He's taking ...., from his job at the university. A ayear’s sabbatical B a sabbatical of a year 10... sometimes drives me up the wall. A My husband’s impatience B The impatience of my husband 11 Throughout the flight we had to put up with A the children sitting in the back row’s antics. B the antics of the children sitting in the back row: 12 The husband of the Queen of England is A Edinburgh's Duke. B the Duke of Edinburgh. 13. We're going to hold the party at A Michael's place. B the place of Michael. 14 __.. was an important turning point in French history. ‘A 1789's revolution B The revolution of 1789 15. Researchers have been amazed by the...... to mutate when attacked, A virus's ability B ability of the virus 16 The vet wasn’t very pleased with A Fido's progress. B the progress of Fido. 17 Her research investigates ..... in cattle. A airborne disease’s spread B the spread of airborne disease 18. The president must swear to uphold A the country’s constitution. B the constitution of the country. 19 Why can’t you just hand in your notice, A for goodness’ sake! B for the sake of goodness! 20... are generating a lot of excitement at the Paris fashion shows. ‘A Gaultier’s latest designs B ‘The latest designs of Gaultier2 GEWANEA write labels for these works, using the information in the chart. Each label must contain all the information. ee parses a rays ah WORK ‘OWNER CREATOR SUBJECT © portrait The Louvre Jacques Louis David Napoleon 1 first edition The British Museum Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland 2 original copy Cornell University Library Abraham Lincoln the Gettysburg Address 3 painting The National Gallery Vincent van Gogh sunflowers 4 statue ‘The Museum of Modern Art Auguste Rodin Honoré Balzac The. Lawvee’s. garteait. of Napolean.by Jacanes. Louis, David, 0 1 2 a 4 3 Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first, using the most suitable form, possessive ‘s or of. Make any other necessary changes, as in the example. In one sentence you will need to use both forms. Listen and check. 0 Over 200,000 people were killed in the earthquake which happened in January 2010. Over 200,000 people were. Killed in, the, earthquake. of January 2010 1 I'd like some petrol. | want to spend 50 euros, worth of petrol, please. 2 [left my jacket in the car which belongs to Uncle Stephen. Left my jacket : 3. There's a medieval castle on the hill. It’s at the top. ‘There's a medieval castle er i 4 Clive works for a major cable TV company. He's the managing director. Clive is ss 5 A girl was trapped under the rubble. We heard her cries, We heard : 6 A Farewell to Arms was written by Ernest Hemingway. It is his greatest novel. A Farewell to Arms i ‘ 7 Glenda described the party. It made us all laugh, vor ¥ : made us all laugh. 8 The flood destroyed the bridge. It happened in 2006. The bridge was destroyed Z 231 2 Read this extract from a book and complete it with si 30 Review MoobuLE 1 Choose the correct words in italics. Both my brother and my sister is / are tall with dark hair and blue eyes. didn’t know who to believe. Steve's / Steve and Jane's stories were completely different. A team of investigators has / have submitted a report to the ministry. Gymnastics is / are very demanding for those who are not fully fit Y'm fed up with the hopeless inefficiency of the secretary of my boss / my boss's secretary. Although the other teams were faster than we / us, we were delighted just to get to the end of the course. My brother’s-in-law’s | brother-in-law’s parents have decided to emigrate to Australia. Is that all the milk you've bought? Two litres isn’t / aren’t enough to last us a week! ‘The restaurant's most famous dish Is chicken / chickens with sweet potatoes. Prize winners will receive a worth of twenty euros / twenty euros’ worth of shopping vouchers. 11 Cinemagoers have been amazed by the battle's depiction of the director / director's depiction of the battle. 12 Have you met Eliza? She's a good friend of us / ours. 13 I’m looking for some classic DVDs. Do you know where ‘Twelve Angry Men! is / are kept? 14. Did you read about the new road scheme? It was in the local paper of yesterday / yesterday's local paper. 15 Tt was a beautiful summer's day: the sun was shining and the cattle was / were grazing peacefully in the meadow. 16 Nutritionists have attributed the relative longevity of the Japanese to their diet of a fish | fish. 17 Marshalll is studying for a master’s in science’s philosophy / the philosophy of science. 18 The basis of all good science is / are thorough research. aunwie Boon able pronouns. In the book, American writer Bill Bryson describes his first visit to England. It must be said that Dover was not vastly improved by daylight, but liked (1)........ liked its small scale and cosy air, and the way everyone said ‘Good morning, and ‘Hello, and ‘Dreadful weather ~ but it must brighten up, t0 @)........ and the sense that this was just (3) more in a very long series of fundamentally cheerful, well-ordered, pleasantly uneventful days. (4)... in the whole of Dover would have any particular reasons to remember 21 March 1973, except for (5) and a handful of children born that day. { didn't know how early (6) could decently begin asking for a room in England, so 1 thought (7)... Would leave (8) mid-morning. With time on my hands, I made a thorough search for a guesthouse that looked attractive and quiet, but friendly and not too expensive, and at the stroke of ten o'clock presented (9) ones 0M the doorstep of the (10) Thad carefully selected, taking care not to discompose the milk bottles. (11) was a small hotel that was really a guesthouse, indeed, was really a boarding-house. I don't remember its name, but | well recall the proprietress, who showed (12) to a room, then gave (13) ....... @ tour of the facilities and outlined the many complicated rules for residing there. This was all bewilderingly new to me. Where I came from, (14) got a room in a motel, spent ten hours making a lavish and possibly irredeemable mess of (15)... and left early the next morning, This was like joining the army.