{"id":7555,"date":"2020-12-10T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T20:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7555"},"modified":"2020-12-10T15:59:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T20:59:15","slug":"joint-possessives-in-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/joint-possessives-in-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Possessives in English"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7556\" style=\"width: 1028px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7556\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7556\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1018\" height=\"678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession.jpg 1018w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7556\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Amanda McConnell from Pixabay, CCO<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Before COVID-19, sharing was considered to be positive and admirable. It was seen as an act of caring, kindness, and selflessness. Whether it was a dessert at a restaurant or a ride service to a hotel, sharing was a nice thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>But now, there\u2019s a lot less sharing in the world. Unless you live in the same household, chances are you don\u2019t share much with others. You might share a secret, a birthday, or a joke, but physical objects are off-limits. We hope that this changes soon so that we can all go back to sharing sandwiches and umbrellas again. And when this happens, \u00a0we all will need to know the grammatical rules for <strong>compound <\/strong>or<strong> joint possessives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Nouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We typically use an <strong>apostrophe<\/strong> to show <strong>possession<\/strong> in English. To show possession with a <strong>singular noun<\/strong>, we use apostrophe-s.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kyle<strong>\u2019s<\/strong> motorcycle<\/li>\n<li>My boss<strong>\u2019s<\/strong> computer<\/li>\n<li>The hotel<strong>\u2019s<\/strong> lobby<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let\u2019s talk about sharing a noun, like that ride service I mentioned earlier. Kyra and Emily are going to take a Lyft to a meeting in the city. If they are sharing the Lyft, then they can also share the same possessive form \u2013 in this case, an apostrophe-S.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kyra and Emily\u2019s Lyft got them to the meeting on time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No matter how many are sharing a single noun, the apostrophe -S goes before the noun. If Kyra\u2019s friend Mike and Emily\u2019s brother Mark are also along for the ride, then Kyra, Mike, Emily, and Mark\u2019s Lyft got them to the meeting. If anyone else is taking the same Lyft, then the car is overcrowded.<\/p>\n<p>But what if Kyra and Emily are taking two separate rides to that same meeting? Now you\u2019re talking about <strong>plural nouns<\/strong> \u2013 two riders and two Lyfts. \u00a0They aren\u2019t sharing, so they each need their own apostrophe.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kyra\u2019s and Emily\u2019s Lyfts got them to the meeting on time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These same rules of sharing apply to all nouns. It can be Lyfts, birthdays, principles \u2013 anything that\u2019s a noun.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kyra and Emily\u2019s interests were very similar.<\/li>\n<li>Kyra\u2019s and Emily\u2019s birthdays were only a week apart.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Pronouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>What if Kyra is talking on her cellphone about her plans with Emily after the meeting? They\u2019re going to take an Uber to a restaurant. Kyra will likely mix a pronoun with a noun.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cEmily\u2019s and my Uber has to arrive no later than 8 PM.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They may be sharing the same Uber, but now that nouns and pronouns are being mixed, one possessive isn\u2019t enough. Both the noun and the pronoun have to be possessive. Emily, the noun, takes the possessive form with the apostrophe-S, and the pronoun equally needs the possessive form \u2013 <em>my<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But, we\u2019re dealing with English, and sometimes proper English doesn\u2019t sound right. It\u2019s awkward to say, \u201cEmily\u2019s and my\u2026\u201d despite the fact that it\u2019s a correct use of the language. We want to change the way we say it. Often, that means using more words to make your point.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe Uber that Emily and I are taking must arrive no later than 8 PM.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>English is fascinating, isn\u2019t it? And maddening. You have to constantly weigh the value of proper grammar with how it sounds to your ear. Both sentences are correct, but which one sounds more like common speech? The choice is yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/joint-posession.jpg 1018w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Before COVID-19, sharing was considered to be positive and admirable. It was seen as an act of caring, kindness, and selflessness. Whether it was a dessert at a restaurant or a ride service to a hotel, sharing was a nice thing to do. But now, there\u2019s a lot less sharing in the world. Unless you&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/joint-possessives-in-english\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":7556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956,135139],"tags":[4067,6,6512],"class_list":["post-7555","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-grammar","category-english-language","tag-american-english","tag-grammar","tag-possessive-form"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7558,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions\/7558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}