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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