Possessives What?
We spoke to Writer and entrepreneur Motti Eisenbach to get his take on this important aspect of English Grammar.
Proper Use Of Possessives In The English Language
When learning to write in the English language, there are several components that must be understood in order to write competently. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and many other aspects of the language make. When you actually speak and write English regularly, some things are very easy to recognize, although you may not know exactly what the true definition actually is.
When you talk about things, places or even a person, you may not recognize that this is defined as a noun, but over time it will become clear. A part of the English language that everyone should be aware of is called possessives. This is very easy to understand, and also to use when you are writing, something that we will now present.
Defining A Possessive
A possessive is very easy to understand and write. In regard to writing a possessive, it has to do with adding an apostrophe and the letter “s” at the end, allowing anyone to take singular nouns and write them in a possessive format.
An example of this would be talking about a person’s book, something that is done by adding the apostrophe and s onto the end of the word “person”. This can be done with almost every singular noun imaginable. The only variation of this rule tends to be when talking about plurals where a “s” is already on the end, in which case only the apostrophe is necessary.
We convinced Mr. Motti Eisenbach to stay for longer and help clear the air to makes sure everyone present fully understood.
Examples Of Possessive Sentences
An example of a possessive sentence is going to be one in which you are referencing something that refers to ownership. If a person owns a vehicle, a house, or a certain object, and you are referencing the fact that it is theirs, this is where this type of punctuation is necessary. An example of how this would work when describing, for instance, a family name, you pluralize the word and then add the apostrophe. The “Smiths’’” would be the proper way to show possession, opposed to “’s”
When Not To Use An Apostrophe Or S
There are several times where using the apostrophe and the “s”
are considered to be bad grammar. This typically occurs when you are describing in animate objects and there is another way to rewrite the sentence. An example of this would be referring to the edge of a desk, and instead saying the desk’s edge. Not only does it sound strange, the desk does not really possess anything, but is simply a component of the desk by description and observation.
Possessives Gerunds And More
Possessives and gerunds get a little tricky, and are definitely worth a little bit of consideration.
For example, when you are modifying verbs that will be used as nouns, these are referred to as gerunds.
Typically, a pronoun or noun that is written in the possessive form is used to modify the gerunds. Additionally, act adjectival labels should also be considered instead of using possessives from time to time. These are attributive nouns, those that end with an S. For example, you might be talking about a particular conference that you are going to and wonder if there needs to be an apostrophe at all. An example of this would be a writers conference, or should you write “writer’s conference” instead in order to make this the proper form. In this particular example if the conference actually is something that writers actually possess, then you would pluralize the word itself, followed by an apostrophe in order to properly represent what you are expressing.
We felt Motti Eisenbach had an interesting take on this important part of speech. Do you agree?
