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	> Similar tests: - Genitive case - Possessive case - Possessive or genitive Case - Possessive adjectives and pronouns. - Personal pronouns, possessives - Back to the possessive case - Whose and use - Possessive idioms
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Possessive case

The genitive / possessive pattern / 's mark is used when indicating a relation of ownership or association.

My dog's ball is always wet with drool. 

"David Copperfield" is one of Charles Dickens's novel. 

I) How can I build it?

owner/singular: NOUN + 'S.

owner/plural: NOUN + '.

My neighbour's children are noisy. 

My neighbours' children are noisy. 

⚠️ Antiquity: only an apostrophe

Who knows anything about Socrates' death or Sophocles' tragedies, nowadays? 

II) Where should I put it?

Caution: the meaning of the sentence can be changed.

Some swimmers and surfers are sometimes bitten by a white shark's teeth. 

Some swimmers and surfers are sometimes bitten by sharks' white teeth. 

We can use two genitive cases in the same sentence.

He bought his neighbour's daughter's car. 

Places:

Let us meet at Brenda's at noon. 

Avoiding repetitions:

Is it Jan's turn? No, it is Charles's! 

With pronouns: somebody, everybody, somebody else, each other, one another.

He couldn't give up without considering everybody's situation. Il ne pouvait pas abandonner sans considérer la situation de tout le monde.

With a date, a length...

Tonight's lecture was popular. 

A five kilometres' walk / A 5 kilometre walk a day is good for your health. 

Do you need a twenty minutes' rest / A twenty minute rest after having your lunch?  déjeuner ?

Idioms :

To get one's money's worth

New Year's day

Art for art's sake

At arm’s length

At the water's edge

For God's sake = for Goodness's sake

For Heaven's sake

To enjoy oneself to one's heart's content

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1. I can hear lot of shoutings of childrenchildren's shoutingshouting's childrenI don't know...

2. ... I think they are my neighbours'my neighbours'sI don't know...

3. At the airport, he has taken somebody else's luggagesomebody's else luggagesomebody else luggageI don't know and was called by the Police : stupid him !

4. Siouxsie and her boyfriend enjoy walking along the edge's riveredges riveredge of the riverI don't know.

5. He raised his son at the length of his armsat length's armsat arm's lengthI don't know to muscle his back.

6. Her baby's hairhair of the babyhair's babyI don't know was completely wet as he had fever.

7. Paper's todayToday paper'sToday's paperI don't know announced cold weather for the next weekend.

8. Look at Jimmy's back dogJimmy's dog's backJimmy back's dogI don't know ! He's angry and afraid of you: please, don't touch him or he will bite you!

9. The Police noticed that Matthews's watchthe watch of Matthewswatch's MatthewsI don't know stopped at five past ten pm.

10. They had already tried everything so that they were at their end's witwit's endI don't know to save their love.