Slip-ups: Possessive vs plural (2)
We continue with a recap of all the things we have discussed on the use of the apostrophe -s ('s) to indicate ownership or possession, association, relationship, etc.
Last week we said the possessive pronouns (his, hers, ours, yours, theirs) do not take the apostrophe (') at all.
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The second thing we are recapping is that in English we reserve the use of the apostrophe - s ('s) to show possession, etc for humans and use the of[1]construction to indicate ownership or possession, etc for inanimate things.
So we write or say:
Kofi's father/school/book/bag The girl's parents/house/car
NOT
The father/school/book/bag of Kofi.
The parents/house/car of the girl.
In the same way, we write or say:
The roots/leaves/bark/branches of the tree.
The straps/colour/quality/design of the bag
NOT
The tree's roots/leaves/bark/branches
The bag's straps/colour/quality/design
We have said that the expressions:
A hair's breadth
A stone's throw
A day's journey/work/wages
etc
are correct because they are idiomatic in meaning. For instance, a hair's breadth does not mean the breadth that belongs to the hair, nor does a day's work means the work that belongs to the day.
(To be continued).
