Possessive case

• Use possessive ’s after people’s names and singular nouns:

They’re the dog’s toys.

It’s not Paul’s guitar.

Is that James’s car?

• Use ’ after regular plural nouns:

That’s her parents’ house.

These are the boys’ mini-disks.

• Use ’s after irregular plural nouns:

The children’s toys.

The men’s cars.

The women’s books.

People’s problems.

Exercise 5. Put the following nouns into plural:

A cat, a man, a monkey, a goose, a house, a road, a mouse, a woman, a lion, a night, a page, a mile, a shelf, an apple, a story, a tiger, a child, a wolf, a piece of advice, a tooth, a stone, a town, a moon, a foot, a pencil, a car, a storm, a cloud, a picture, a table, a bag, a piece of bread.

Exercise 6. Rewrite the following using the nouns in the plural and making all the necessary changes.

1. His sister is a housewife. 2. Her husband is a doctor. 3. The actress’s voice is very beautiful.4. One of them is a typist, another is a laboratory assistant, and the third is a librarian. 5. That man has a grandchild. 6. My aunt’s daughter has no family of her own yet. 7. Your cousin has no mother-in-law, has she? - No, she hasn’t. She is not married yet. 8. My uncle’s son is a very clever boy. He is like his father, very clever and handsome.

Exercise 7. Paraphrase the following using the possessive case.

Example: The son of our manager — our manager's son

1) the house of Mr. Smith; 2) a doll of the girls; 3) the works of Rembrandt; 4) a toy of the baby; 5) a meeting of the employees; 6) the bags of those women; 7) the orders of our boss; 8) the books of the children; 9) the cottage of my parents; 10) a garage of her cousin. 11) coal deposits of the world; 12) the influence of the sun; 13) the atmosphere of the earth; 14) the joys and grieves of life; 15) the arrival of the ship; 16) icy mountains of Greenland; 17) the policy of the company; 18) gold reserves of Russia; 19) the gravitation of the planet; 20) the decisions of the commission.