The possessive case shows ownership of a noun or pronoun. It’s expressed differently in languages, but in English, it’s usually an apostrophe and “s”. Pronouns can also be possessive. Other languages use longer constructions.
The possessive case is a grammatical case that indicates the ownership or possession of a noun or pronoun by another noun or pronoun. This can apply to both proper nouns, such as individuals or geographical locations named by name, and common nouns such as cars, houses, or dogs. Almost every language has a possessive case, although the structure of making this case varies widely. It is one of the most commonly used genitive cases, which are the linguistic cases that indicate the relationship between two nouns.
In English, the possessive case is usually expressed in two ways. When the owner’s name comes first in a sentence, an apostrophe and the letter “s” are usually added to the word. For example, a bike owned by Sally would be described as “Sally’s bike”. In the case of a plural word, only an apostrophe is added at the end. For example, a building owned by a company would be described as a “corporate building”.
Some English pronouns can also be used as possessives in and of themselves. For example, in the sentence “Have you seen her?” the pronoun “she” indicates a woman. If, on the other hand, the sentence were to read “that’s her bike”, the word “she” would indicate possession by the woman.
When an English pronoun follows the noun it has, it usually doesn’t require an apostrophe, just an “s.” For example, “she” becomes “his of her” and “they” becomes “they”. In a sentence, an example could be: “the bike belongs to her”.
Possession can also be indicated by placing the owned name first, then the owned name, and inserting the word “of” between the two. For example, “Sally’s bike”. This construction is generally considered awkward in English and is more often mistaken for the simpler apostrophe-s combination. However, this preference is not common worldwide.
In many other languages, including most Romance languages, the longer construction is actually the most commonly used form of the possessive case. For example, “the girl’s bike” would translate to “la bicyclette de la fille” in French. This literally reads “the girl’s bicycle”. In Spanish, the phrase would become “la moto de la muchacha”, which also literally translates to “the girl’s bike”. For this reason, the possessive case can be a challenge for both native English speakers trying to learn foreign languages and non-native speakers trying to learn English.
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