§ 6. The category of case.

English nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two cases: the common case and the genitive (or possessive) case.

The genitive case is formed by adding -’s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only ’ (the apostrophe) to plural forms ending in -s.

SINGULAR: a girl's book PLURAL: a girls’ School

Note 1. —Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the

apostrophe s in the plural.

SINGULAR: a man's hat PLURAL: men's hats

Note 2.— Nouns ending in -s form the genitive case by adding -’s (the apostrophe s) Dickens’s novels; an actress’s career.

Note 3.– Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words: Jane and Mary's room but Jane’s and Mary’s rooms. The last word of the group need not even be a noun: I shall be back in an hour or two’s time.

Note 4. We add ’s to the last element of the word group: my brother-in-law’s house.

Note 5. – We use ’s with some non-living things:

- With time phrases: an hour’s journey, two day’s work, a month’s salary.

- In fixed phrases: the earth’s surface, journey’s end, ship’s company.

- Set-expressions: for heaven’s sake/for god’s sake, a hair’s breadth, at a stone’s throw.

- With nouns expressing space and weight, the names of the countries, cities, ships, organizations, with the nouns world, country, city, ship: the river’s edge, Moscow’s theatre, world’s best museums, the ship’s crew, the government decision.

As to its use the genitive case falls under: the Dependent Genitive and the Absolute Genitive.

The Dependent Genitive is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it.

The Absolute Genitive may be used without any noun it modifies: the stationer’s, the baker’s, the tobacconist’s, my uncle’s, etc.