15
votes
What is the possessive case and the objective case of "ye?"
In Early Modern English, ye was the nominative case and the objective and possessives were the familiar you (objective), your (possessive determiner) and yours (possessive pronoun).
6
votes
What is the possessive case and the objective case of "ye?"
Genesis 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye
your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.
Here is an example from the Bible showing all ...
3
votes
"A quarter of us is going to lose our jobs" or "A quarter of us is going to lose his job"
Since you’re talking about [some of] us (first person plural), your subject and verb must agree in person and number, and if the object maps one-to-one with the subject (e.g., each person has ...
3
votes
Accepted
Possessive case with who(m)ever in an object noun phrase
Whomever’s is never viable — not as a possessive, not as a contraction, not anywhere. That leaves whosever and whoever’s as possibilities (see Later at end for more on that).
You have already learned ...
2
votes
'My' or 'mine'?
"Mine" is correct, but in this context, I would suggest using an alternative term such as "Personal"
2
votes
Accepted
'My' or 'mine'?
You are correct. Mine, as a pronoun (m-w, usage 2), should be used here. My is an adjective (m-w) and requires a noun.
2
votes
Accepted
Singular/Plural determiner
I think the answer you're after is the number (singular or plural) of a verb must agree with its subject. There is no grammatical requirement for the number of any objects of verbs to also agree.
2
votes
Possessive case with who(m)ever in an object noun phrase
Somehow you are overthinking this terribly and coming to a nonsensical conclusion. You ask us to choose between incorrect assumptions.
Parents should use who(m)ever's last name is shorter on the form....
1
vote
Possessive determiners, ambiguous references, and the question of the relevance of context
Yes, these are grammatically correct. The antecedent of a pronoun can often only be determined from context. To adapt an example from Wikipedia:
The large ball crashed right through the table because ...
1
vote
What possessive is used when "everybody" is the antecedent?
Animacy, not Gender
If you don’t know what someone’s gender is, you cannot call them an “it”, for “it” is not about gender. It is therefore ungrammatical in English to use its to refer to a human ...
1
vote
Is the possessive "its" or "their" after "all of the country's states and territories"?
Disclaimer: I am not a native English speaker nor an English teacher, rather an advanced learner. The answer below was written primarily based on common sense and the logic of grammar and might ...
1
vote
What do you make of the quoted paragraph below?
Common sense tells us what the paragraph is trying to say, but it does read oddly because logically it could be telling us that the young people do their own shopping etc. I don't think that ...
1
vote
a brother/sister of mine - one of my brothers/sisters
A “something” of mine usually means it is one of many, and it doesn’t matter much which one. “A friend of mine had his bicycle stolen”, “a teacher of mine came to school wearing non-matching sox”.
My “...
1
vote
Apostrophe 's, "of", or nothing to show possession/ownership?
why do we sometimes show possession/ownership using 's or of, why sometime not?
Neither the Saxon genitive (the family's name), nor "of" (the name of the family), nor noun1 + noun2 (the ...
1
vote
Apostrophe 's, "of", or nothing to show possession/ownership?
As your suggested alternatives indicate, there are any number of ways of showing ownership, both specifically and generally by simply subtracting an 's or adding a couple of words (as in "the dog'...
1
vote
'my picture' - ownership vs. depiction
The difference between the sentences is the meaning of the components, which may be determined from context. As Kris notes, the sentences are grammatically the same.
When presented with a photograph, ...
1
vote
Which one of these sentences is better? A thesis title - Apostrophes Showing Possession
In a comment, John Lawler wrote:
When you're already using apostrophes to represent non-English phonetics or spelling, using an apostrophized possessive in addition is a risk.
My suggestion: ...
Community wiki
1
vote
Accepted
Some types of nouns feel ungrammatical in "His every [noun]"?
The second sentence is grammatically correct though the passive form sounds rather formal.
The possiblity of the Passive Voice here can be illustrated by an example from Reverso.context.net:
She ...
1
vote
Difference between "the train" and "his train"
If someone was visiting you by a particular train and he doesn't arrive by expected time you can say he may have missed the train. Here the refers to a particular train and possibly well known to ...
1
vote
'my and (name)'... 'his and (name)'
I agree that the second one feels really awkward.
If you need to refer to their shared experience, and you have also mentioned about it before, or you are already talking about both people involved(...
1
vote
'my and (name)'... 'his and (name)'
They are both correct, but I agree that the second one in particular feels awkward. I think the awkwardness comes from thinking about taking "and Anya's" out of the second sentence, which would ...
1
vote
Which determiner to use with degrees: “a” or “my/his/her/your”?
One would use a in the case where none of the people involved in the conversation has a similar qualification: She has a Ph.D. in biophysics, (me, I have an O-level).
But if everyone involved had a ...
1
vote
"Its" as a Possessive Pronoun
To complement and update tchrist's excellent answer: the new on-line version of the OED has 6 examples of "its" as a possessive pronoun:
1623 Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII i. i. 18 ...
1
vote
When is a gerund supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner?
This would be my "common usage" (and non-formal) take:
He resents your being more popular than he is. (either your-you)
Most of the members paid their dues without my asking them. (my preferred)
They ...
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Related Tags
possessive-determiners × 42possessives × 11
personal-pronouns × 8
grammaticality × 6
pronouns × 5
word-choice × 4
grammatical-case × 4
possessive-pronouns × 4
grammatical-number × 3
determiners × 3
grammar × 2
nouns × 2
apostrophe × 2
gerunds × 2
gender-neutral × 2
noun-phrases × 2
agreement × 2
saxon-genitive × 2
singular-they × 2
compound-possessives × 2
possessive-s-vs-of × 2
objective-case × 2
relative-determiners × 2
expressions × 1
meaning-in-context × 1