First Grammar Lessons: Part II, Lesson VI
Lesson VI
It sometimes happens that a noun has another noun, the name of a quite different thing, going before it as an adjective might.
This first noun is always written with an s after it—not joined to it as if it were plural, but with a comma between the sand the word.
A comma placed so is called an apostrophe, a word which means to turn away, and it is a sign that some letter has been turned away.
“The bird’s wing” was once “the birdes wing.”
The e has been turned away, and the s kept with an ‘ to show the place of thee.
When two nouns come together in this way, the first thing, of which the name is written with the ‘s, always owns the second.
“The dog’s collar”—the ‘s to “dog” shows that it owns or possesses the collar.
For this reason such nouns are said to be in the possessing or possessive case.
To be learnt.
When one thing owns another the name of the owning thing is in the possessive case.
Exercise VI
1. Put six nouns in the possessive case to each of the following name-words:
book, toy, dress, chair.
2. Give six nouns that can be owned by the following persons or things:
ants, house, children, garden, piano.
3. Give a list of words in pairs, putting one of them in the possessive case, such as:
dog . . collar, pinafore . . child, man . . book, woman . . house.
4. Point out the nouns in the possessive case in different sentences. Say which is the possessor, and which the object possessed.
5. Make six sentences, each containing a noun in the possessive case.