Other structures with apostrophe s ('s)

2.188 When you are talking about two things of the same type which belong to different people you can use the possessive form of a name or noun like a possessive pronoun so that you can omit repeating the thing itself. In the first example below, 'David's' is used instead of 'David's hand'.

Her hand felt different from David's.

Her tone was more friendly than Stryker's.

It is your responsibility rather than your parents'.

The possessive form can also be used on its own to refer to someone's home or place of work.

He's round at David's.

She stopped off at the butcher's for a piece of steak.

She hasn't been back to the doctor's since.

Possessive pronouns are explained in paragraphs 1.110 to 1.114.

2.189 The possessive form can be used in a prepositional phrase beginning with 'of' which qualifies a noun group. You use this structure when you are talking about one of a number of things that belong to someone or are associated with them, rather than about something unique.

Julia, a friend of Jenny's, was there too.

That word was a favourite of your father's.

2.190 Possessive forms can also be used to refer to things of a particular type which are usually associated with someone.

...a woman dressed in a man's raincoat.

...a policeman's uniform.

...women's magazines.

...the men's lavatory.

2.191 The possessive form can sometimes be used with nouns which refer to an action in order to indicate who or what is performing the action.

...the banking service's rapid growth.

...Madeleine's arrival at Fairwater House School.

Note that prepositional phases beginning with 'of' are used more commonly to do this, and that they are more formal than this use of possessive forms. The use of prepositional phrases beginning with 'of' to indicate who or what is performing an action is explained in paragraph 2.299.

2.192 Sometimes you can add apostrophe s ('s) to a noun referring to the thing affected by the performer of an action and put it in front of the noun referring to that performer. For example, you can talk about 'the scheme's supporters'.

...Mr Healy's supporters.

...the car's owner.

Sometimes an apostrophe s ('s) structure can be used to indicate the thing affected by an action.

...Benn's appointment as Minister of Technology.

Note again that 'of' structures are more commonly used to do this.

Talking about quantities and amounts

2.193 This section deals with ways of referring to quantities and amounts of things. You often refer to quantities by using a number, but sometimes in everyday situations you can do this by using a word or a phrase such as 'several' and 'a bottle' and link it with 'of' to the following noun group in a partitive structure. When words like 'several' are used like this, they are called quantifiers. Quantifiers are explained in paragraphs 2.194 to 2.210. When phrases such as 'a bottle' are used like this, they are called partitives. Partitives are explained in paragraphs 2.211 to 2.224.

When you want to be very precise about the quantity or amount of something, you can use numbers (see paragraphs 2.225 to 2.256) or fractions (see paragraphs 2.257 to 2.266).

Numbers, fractions, and quantifiers are also used in expressions of measurement to indicate the size, weight, length, and so on, of something. Ways of talking about measurements are explained in paragraphs 2.267 to 2.274. Approximate measurements are explained in paragraphs 2.281 to 2.288. Numbers are also used to say how old someone or something is. This is explained in paragraphs 2.275 to 2.280.