Genitive case

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!!!