Double Genitive and Possessive Forms in English

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. Can I ask you a question? Who do you  

take after? Meaning, who do you look like or act  like? Do people say you're the spitting image of  

your great-grandmother? Are you tall like your  grandfather? Maybe you view the world like your  

father or you're easy going like your mother. I  have my mother's laugh, and my sneeze is loud just  

like my father's. I also picked up habits from my  grandmother. One habit of hers was making lists:  

a packing list before a trip, a shopping  list, a to-do list, you name it.

Of course, we're all unique individuals, but we're  also an interesting combination of the traits we  

inherited. Right? That's something to think  about. Well, another thing I'd like to invite  

you to reflect on is how we use possessive forms.  In this lesson, we'll look at phrases like these:  

just like my father's, one habit of hers. Let's  study odd uses of possessive nouns and pronouns.

I told you that my sneeze is loud just like my  father's. I didn't have a noun after "father's,"  

but I think you knew what I was referring to.  Right? My father's sneeze. Sometimes we omit  

or leave out a noun after a possessive form  because it's understood. This practice has a name  

ellipsis. I have a whole lesson on omitting words,  and I'll put the link in the video description.  

Look at these sentences and tell me which words  I omitted. My answer is different from Carla's.

I have my cell phone right  here. That must be Bradley's.

My room is here on the right.  Nolan's is on the left.  

And Mom and Dad's room is upstairs. They converted  the whole attic into a really awesome suite.

Nolan's what? Nolan's room. It's understood.

By the way, do you understand that the mom  and dad share a room or have separate rooms?

They share a room together. Right?  Don't forget that we only need 's  

after the second name if two  people own something together.

And while we're talking about the placement  of the apostrophe, how do we make a noun  

possessive if it's actually a group of  words, like father-in-law or my in-laws?

Easy. Just stick 's after the last word in the  group, as in "my father-in-law's business,"  

"my in-laws address."

Let's do a very quick review of possessive nouns.  If you have a personal noun, meaning the name of  

a person, then use 's: Jennifer's habit.  If the name ends in -s, you have a choice:  

add 's or just the apostrophe. Whichever pattern  you choose, be consistent. Jess's cousin.  

It sounds the same no matter which way you  write it. For a family name, make it plural  

and then add an apostrophe: the Lebedevs' dog.  The patterns are similar for common nouns,  

like the singular noun "boy": the boy's bike. And  the plural noun "girls": the girl's friendship.  

The exception is an irregular plural  noun like "women": women's rights.

Let's try a quick task to  practice that earlier pattern  

where we omit a word after a possessive  noun. Some call it an independent genitive.  

Complete my sentence with your own words.  Put your statement in the comments.

Here's my example. I have my father's  eyes, but my nose is just like my mother's.

Here's another instance where we leave  out a noun after a possessive form.  

Guess where I was in this photo.  Do you recognize these ladies?

I was at Andreia's. When I first started filming  the Basic English series, we met at Andreia's  

home. Then the two ladies moved in together,  so we started to film at Flavia and Andreia's.

Some call this the local genitive. We  use a possessive name all by itself,  

and we understand it's a location: their place,  their home, their house, their apartment.

If there's a party at my place,  what might you tell others?

"Hey! There's a party at Jennifer's. Let's go!"

We also use the local genitive  to talk about places of business,  

like a doctor's office. When you  have a dental exam, where do you go?

To the dentist's. And when you  have an eye exam, where do you go?

To the eye doctor's.

Have you ever noticed how many restaurants and  cafés are named after the owner and chef? Sal's.  

Mama Lita's.

Even if the full name of the restaurant is Sal's  Pizza, frequent guests refer to it as Sa'l's.  

"Let's go to Sal's tonight." And it  officially may be Mama Lita's Café,  

but a happy customer will say,  "Mama Lita's is the best!"

Use of the ellipsis and the local genitive  isn't too hard to understand, but I admit the  

double genitive is a bit odd. I gave the example  "one habit of hers" when I was talking about my  

grandmother's love of making lists. The double  genitive is also called the double possessive,  

and we use "of" plus a possessive noun or pronoun,  as in "one of my grandmother's" or "one of hers."

Super quick review of possessive pronouns: mine,  yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs. Remember that  

pronouns replace nouns. That means they can  behave like nouns and be subjects, objects,  

and complements. Yours is newer. "Yours"  is the subject. They fixed mine. "Mine"  

is the object of the verb, the direct object.  That's ours. "Ours" is the subject complement.

A fairly common use of the double genitive  is with "friend" and other words that refer  

to a social relationship of some kind:  a friend of mine, a friend of Vicki's,

a colleague of mine, a colleague of Jennifer's.

You may ask, "Why can't we just say 'my friend'  or 'Vicki's friend'? 'My colleague'? 'Jennifer's  

colleague'?" You can. I'm sure you realize by  now that we often have more than one way to  

say the same thing. Sometimes it's a matter of  preference. I'd say that "a friend of mine" is  

close and meaning to "one of my friends." I have  more than one friend, and this is one of them.

"Friend," "cousin," and "relative" are three  words that can easily fit the double genitive  

or phrases with "one of": one  of his friends, a friend of his,  

one of her cousins, a cousin of hers, one of  our relatives, a relative of ours. Some see no  

difference in meaning. I'd mostly agree with that,  but there could be a slightly different emphasis.  

"One of" focuses on one member of a group, one  friend in his circle of friends, for example.

And if I'm focusing on the quantity, I  wouldn't likely use the double genitive.  

I'd say, "Two of his friends, most of  her cousins, some of her relatives."

How about the difference between  "my friend" and "a friend of mine"?  

There could be a subtle difference between saying  "my friend" and "a friend of mine." In my mind,  

one of these phrases suggests a closer  relationship. The other one sounds more  

casual and possibly suggests more distance  between the two of us. Can you guess?

"She's my friend." To me, this  suggests a solid friendship.

"She's a friend of mine."

To me, this sounds more casual. It  could suggest we're not close friends.

But that doesn't mean that "of mine" always  implies a relationship is distant or casual.  

The use of adjectives can clarify how  close the relationship is. Here's how  

I might handle some introductions. "I'd like  you to meet a close friend of mine, Bridget."  

"Come meet a good friend of mine.  You two work in the same field."

Which do you think sounds more natural? Sonya is  a best friend of mine. Sonya is my best friend.

I wouldn't say, "Sonya is a best friend of mine."  

How many best friends do we have? Lots? Uh-uh. I  would say, "Sonya is my best friend," or possibly,  

"She is one of my best friends," if I have two  perhaps or three. Do you see the difference?

So, would it sound natural to say,  "Bridget is a close friend of mine"?

Yes. Because it's common to have a few  close friends, that is, more than one.

Which of these statements clearly  mean that I have more than one cousin?

Only the last two. "If I say Kim is my cousin,"  I may have only one. It's not clear. Also,  

if Kim is a distant cousin, I'd likely use B: Kim  is a cousin of mine, but that's my preference.

So, double genitives can  be used to identify people  

and the relationship they have with  someone. Can you insert the missing nouns?

Joey Taylor is an old friend of mine.  We went to the same high school.

I can introduce you to Gabriella.  She's an acquaintance of mine.  

We met through a mutual friend.

A colleague of mine works at XYZ Company.  I can reach out to her and get her opinion.

Here's another subtle difference  between the double genitive  

and an "of" construction. Can you spot it?

I like to draw, but i'm not as talented as Xiaonin  

from the YouTube channel The Portrait Art. He  drew my portrait several years ago, so this is  

a drawing of me. It's a drawing of Jennifer,  but it's not my work. It's Xiaonan's work.  

He shared a lot of amazing art over the years, and  if you're familiar with his style, you might see  

one of his portraits and say, "That's a portrait  of Xiaonan's. That's a drawing of Xiaonan's."

Okay. So, we talked about using ellipsis, where we  leave out a noun after a possessive form because  

it's understood. And we talked about using the  local genitive for homes and places of business.  

We saw how the double genitive can  be used for social relationships.

Another odd piece of grammar  is making inanimate nouns  

possessive. We don't normally do this unless  the noun is somehow connected to people,  

as in "Boston's love of sports" because  the people in Boston love sports.

But there are set expressions  that use possessive forms,  

and you simply have to gain familiarity  with them. They include these words:  

"sake" -- as in "for goodness' sake," "for  heaven's sake," both of which are expressions  

of exasperation, frustration or "for old  times' sake," (for the sake of old times).

"Way" -- "out of harm's way," "put someone  in harm's way." This refers to danger.  

How about "nature's way"? have  you heard that collocation?

And expressions of measurement include  possessive nouns before the word  

"worth," as in "get your money's  worth," "a week's worth of food."

Here are two final questions for you to answer:  

Did you ever go to the movie theater and  feel like you didn't get your money's worth?

How much are you willing to  spend on a week's worth of food?

For more uses of possessive  nouns, check out my other lesson.  

I go over additional units of measurement, and  I address the question of making inanimate nouns  

possessive. I'll put the link  in the video description.

That's all for now. Please like and  share the video if you found the lesson  

useful. As always, thanks for  watching and happy studies!

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