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Elementary Lower Intermediate Apostrophe S Genitive Case
Elementary Lower Intermediate Apostrophe S Genitive Case
The genitive case is used to indicate possession when we refer to animate (living) nouns. When we talk about
inanimate (not living) nouns we normally don’t use it.
Examples:
To form the genitive, we need to pay attention to the final letter of the noun:
If the noun ends in «s» we add «apostrophe + s».
If the noun ends in a letter which is not «s», then we add apostrophe to a plural noun ending in s, and
we can add an apostrophe + s to a plural not ending in s.
The genitive can be optional with nouns that refer to a group of people or to places where people live, to
institutions,etc.
America’s resources ,Santiago’s heavy traffic, the company’s head office.So we can also say :
The heavy traffic of Santiago, the resources of America or the head office of the company.
The possessive form can also express time, length of time of an event, etc.
Examples: a year’s work, have you read yesterday´s newspaper?, a fortnight’s holiday, there’s going to be an
hour’s delay.
Another use of the possessive form is to refer to the home or the shop of someone and to express purpose.
1
Supplementary Material
EXERCISE 1.
This is
He has
They have
The young
Your
The
I heard a
Keats
2
Supplementary Material
The genitive case is used to indicate: 1) place or shop, 2) person(animate), 3) duration, 4) purpose.
EXERCISE 2. Look at the following examples and indicate whether the idea refers to 1) place or shop, 2)
person (animate), 3) duration, 4) purpose.
EXERCISE 3. Complete the sentences with the correct name of the shop.
Butcher’s, Greengrocer’s, Pharmacy, News-stand and Baker’s.
KEY CHECK
EXERCISE 1.
EXERCISE 2.
A. 1 B. 1 C. 2 D. 2 E. 2
F. 4 G. 3 H. 3
EXERCISE 3.