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When there are multiple places where possession is shown, how are the words structured?

A few examples:

  • Greg's son's laptop is on fire.
  • Mary's friends' boat is sinking.
  • Thomas's neighbor's cat ate a mouse.
  • Apple's Stock App's stats are useful.
  • Microsoft's Xbox 360's games are fun.

Are these the correct ways to express possession?

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  • No, it should be Thomas’s neighbor’s cat because the possessive has three syllables in that word.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 3:04
  • Thanks, I wasn't aware of that rule. However, are the other examples correct? They seem cluttered and phonetically repetitive. @tchrist
    – Zach Gates
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 3:10

1 Answer 1

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3

Those are all just fine.

Imagine your boss’s husband’s sister’s hairdresser’s salon, for example. Those all just chain together.

We don’t have to write the salon of the hairdresser of the sister of the husband of your boss in English, and really should avoid doing so. :)

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