Grammatical category of possessive case of noun and its formation

There are only two cases of nouns in English: possessive case and common case.

The lesson shows the formation of cases and gives examples of the occurrencesoccurrencesnof possessive case of nouns.

Possessive Case where nouns take the special ending; and

Common Case where nouns don’t have any ending.

Singular nouns form their possessive case by adding ‘s to the singular.

* The boy’s dog

* My father’s office

Only the apostrophe (‘) without s is added if the noun contains too many hissing sounds.

* for goodness’sake

* for conference’s sake

Plural Nouns ending in -s form their possessive case by adding only an apostrophe.

* boys’ school

* girls’hostel

Plural Nouns that do not end in -s, form the possessive case by adding ‘s.

* Children’s books

*Women’s club

Uses of the possessive case

The possessive case is now used chiefly with the names of living things.

*the lion’s mane

*the minister’s bodyguards

The possessive case is not normally used with the names of lifeless things; instead, we use a structure with of

* The leg of the table (NOT The table’s leg)

* The cover of the book (NOT The book’s cover