2.4 Possessive forms

Personal names have a possessive form (Saxon genitive), e.g.:

Mary's book (el llibre de la Mary)

Mr. Johnson's car (el cotxe del Sr. Johnson)

You will sometime find names that end in s do not have a second s, e.g.:

Charles' brother

Dickens' novels

Nouns for people also have a possessive form, e.g.:

The girl's book (el llibre de la noia)

The girls' books (els llibres de les noies)

My brother's girlfriend (l'amiga del meu germà)

The teachers' room (la sala dels professors)

We use the possessive form with human organisations, including countries, etc., e.g.:

this company's success (l'èxit d'aquesta empresa)

the British Government's attitude (l'actitud del govern britànic)

Spain's commercial partners (els socis comercials d'Espanya)

the world's biggest problem (el problema més gran del món)

We also use the possessive form with some animals, e.g.:

the dog's blanket (la manta del gos)

Formula for making the possessive form:

Take a noun	Add an apostrophe	If the word does not end in –s, add an -s
Mary	Mary'	Mary's
girl	girl'	girl's
girls	girls'	girls'
child	child'	child's
children	children'	children's
James	James'	James'

Exceptions: words ending in –ss, e.g.:

Tess's brother (el germà de la Tess)

the boss's car (el cotxe del cap)

We also use this possessive form with periods of time, e.g.:

Have you read today's newspaper? (Ha llegit el diari d'avui?)

I didn't see last week's match. (No vaig veure el partit de la setmana passada.)

I've got two weeks' holiday. (Tinc dues setmanes de vacances.)

There is no absolute rule about the use of these forms; here is some guidance:

	Normal	Less usual	Incorrect
Human subject	Mary's book		the book of Mary
the children's toys	the toys of the children
Collective human subject	the council's water policy	the water policy of the council
Spain's destiny	the destiny of Spain
Animal subject	the dog's food1		the food of the dog
inanimate; relation part of	garage door2	the door of the garage	the garage's door
animal or inanimate; relation purpose of or type of	dog food1		food of dogs
wine bottle3			wine's bottle
tennis court			court of tennis
garden tools	tools for the garden		tools of the garden
mountain bike	bike for the mountains
love story	story about love
skin disease	disease of the skin		skin's disease
Inanimate; relation made of, consisting of or made with	orange marmalade
pork chops
olive oil
malt whisky
Abstract	the end of the story	the story's end	the story end
the history of philosophy			philosophy's history

1. Note that the dog's food is el menjar del gos; but dog food is menjar per a gossos. 2. Notice that top, bottom, front, back, middle and end usually go with of, e.g.: the top of the window (la part superior de la finestra) the back of the hall (el fons de la sala) the ends of the ropes (els punts de les cordes) 3. Notice the difference between a type of container and a container full of something: Type of container Container full of something wine bottle bottle of wine cigarette packet packet of cigarettes beer can can of beer jam jar jar of jam teacup cup of tea soup bowl bowl of soup matchbox box of matches

We bought two bottles of wine. After the meal, we took the wine bottles to the bottle bank. (Vam comprar dues ampolles de vi. Després de l'àpat, vam portar les ampolles de vi al contenidor de vidre.)

	For a cousin of Tom's, etc., see double genitive. See also proper nouns and nouns that modify other nouns.