Cerca tra vari insegnanti di Inglese...
Meng
Should there be an “apostrophe-s” following “of somebody”?
There’s a problem that always puzzles me.
Examples of the problem goes like:
“……, you should have made more of the fact that Sandy’s payout to this cause is more than double that of Amy’s, ……”
In this case we put an apostrophe-s after “of Amy”
whilst another sentence goes:
“……, in terms of dietary expenditure, John had the greatest cost of it at $1000 per day, a figure which dwarfed the one of Jamie, ……”
Now we have no apostrophe-s after “of Jamie”
Can anyone explain the reason for such a discrepancy please ?
30 ott 2012 14:44
Risposte · 2
1
In the first example, the "possession" (grammatically speaking) is omitted. (i.e. you could say "...more than double that of Amy's PAYOUT). Although omitted, the structure is the same.
The second example does not use the same format. It uses the "of" form of possession - "one" is the subject of possession, followed by "of" and the possessor "Jamie". In this case, no apostrophe-s is used.
I think the confusion is from how "that" looks like a possession - it isn't. I can't say "I like Edward's that." But I can say "I like Edward's one." (of course, you must previously state what "one" this is - through context or through explanation.
Hope that helps!
30 ottobre 2012
Non hai ancora trovato le tue risposte?
Scrivi le tue domande e lascia che i madrelingua ti aiutino!
Meng
Competenze linguistiche
Cinese (mandarino), Cinese (taiwanese), Inglese, Spagnolo
Lingua di apprendimento
Inglese, Spagnolo
Altri articoli che potrebbero piacerti

English Vocabulary for Using Microsoft Office at Work
28 consensi · 7 Commenti

How to Answer “How Was Your Weekend?” Naturally in English
56 consensi · 30 Commenti

Why Some Jokes Don’t Translate: Understanding Humor in English
15 consensi · 6 Commenti
Altri articoli
