for questions about using two different possessive markers, like “of Bob’s” or “of mine”
1
vote
1answer
92 views
“his” may be more suitable but why is “him” not ok ? [duplicate]
Consider the following :
A friend of him came here yesterday.
A friend of his came here yesterday.
My question is which one is acceptable. If both are acceptable, do they have any difference in ...
-1
votes
1answer
45 views
Usage of both apostrophe and “of” together [duplicate]
I was reading Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and noticed following sentence:
About those boots of Ralph Paton’s.
It is really in old (old as in early or mid twentieth century) ...
1
vote
1answer
101 views
Is it correct to say “a friend of X and mine” if both X and I know each other and the friend?
As I understand it, if X and Y independently have the same friend Z, we should write
Z is a friend of X's and Y's
but if X and Y collectively have Z as a friend (e.g., X and Y are a couple), ...
0
votes
1answer
75 views
What's the difference between “a picture of the king” and “a picture of the king's”? [closed]
A picture of the king.
A picture of the king's.
What exactly is the difference between the two?
1
vote
1answer
129 views
“A friend of Susan” vs. “a friend of Susan's” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why is it usually “friend of his”, but no possessive apostrophe with “friend of Peter”?
I'm currently having hot debates with a friend of mine about which one is more ...
13
votes
5answers
851 views
Why 'a friend of mine' is not 'my friend's friend'?
I have some questions about the expression "a friend of mine" and I'm quite confused with it. Actually I have found some threads about this topic but they don't hit my point. I'm not a native English ...
-1
votes
4answers
392 views
Double genitive
Which of the following is grammatical?
That action would not increase my satisfaction, but the one of my driver's.
That action would not increase my satisfaction but my driver's one
I ...
22
votes
9answers
2k views
Why is it usually “friend of his”, but no possessive apostrophe with “friend of Peter”?
As this NGram shows, we nearly always use the possessive form of personal pronouns for friend of mine/his/ours/etc.
But when it comes to actual names, we prefer friend of Peter without the possessive ...
6
votes
1answer
518 views
Why do we say “of mine/of his” instead of “of me/of him”?
He's a friend of mine.
That's a car of his.
Why do we use the possessive when the meaning would be the same while not using it (e.g. a friend of me and a car of him)? I thought maybe it is ...
6
votes
2answers
807 views
Why use apostrophe-s to denote possession when using 'of'
Think of the simple phrase "Bill's friend".
If you were going to turn this around using the preposition 'of' would you say:
A friend of Bill's
or
A friend of Bill
It appears to me that, in the US ...
11
votes
8answers
9k views
Why do you say “friend of mine” instead of “friend of me”?
I think friend of mine can be translated to my friend.
In that case, doesn't friend of me make more sense?
If we translate friend of mine to one of my friends then I guess friend of mine makes sense ...
