First Grammar Lessons: Part II, Lesson VII

Lesson VII

These possessive nouns may go before the subject. We may say:

Mary’s brother is tall.

Here ‘brother’ is the thing we talk of, that is, the subject; and ‘Mary’s’ is the possessive noun that goes with it as an adjective would.

Sometimes they go with the object:

Henry broke Lucy’s cart.

Broke what? the cart, and ‘Lucy’s’ is the possessive noun that goes with the object as an adjective would.

‘Lucy’ and ‘cart’ are, of course, different things, or Lucy could not own the cart.

If we were speaking of two or three boys, and said: “The boys’ hats,” we should put the ‘ after the s, instead of before it. So we should know that it was two or three boys who owned, and not one boy.

To be learnt.

Possessive nouns may go with the subject or the object.

Plural nouns have the ’after the s.

Exercise VII

1. Make four sentences with ‘Harry’s dog,’ or ‘Tom’s rabbit.’

2. Make six sentences with ‘Tom’s rabbit’ for the object.

3. Make six sentences with ‘Harry’s dog’ for the subject.

4. Supply two pairs of nouns to the following verbs:

found, seize, saw, caught.

5. Supply four nouns as subjects, with a noun in the possessive case, to the same verbs.

6. Supply the same pairs of nouns as objects, with a noun in the possessive case, to the same verbs.

7. Put the following pairs of nouns into the plural:

The girl’s book, the eagle’s nest.