Table of Contents
Genitive case
There are two ways to express the complement of a nominal:
- My father's car
- The car of my father
S-Genitive
S-Genitive is formed by adding 's to the Genitive noun:
My father's eyes
if the genitive noun ends with "s" (regular plural) only ' is added:
The kids' books
if the genitive noun it's already ending with "s", both ' and 's is allowed:
Mr. Roberts's book
Mr. Roberts' book
Syntax
S-genitive:
- it's considered as a form of determiner (John's book = il libro di Gianni, *un libro di Gianni)
- it's located before all adjectives (My teacher's brand new red car)
- only animated nouns can be made S-Genitive (My grandmother's soup, *The stone's moss). Exceptions: body parts (The hearth's vertricles), places (Britain's capital), times (Yesterday's newspaper), vehicles.
Dictionary of the day
| En | It | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Moss | muschio | Ronn Moss = Ronn Muschio! Kate Moss = Kate Muschio!!! |