The 7 Types of Possessive Case

The 7 Types of Possessive Case The 7 Types of Possessive Case The 7 Types of Possessive Case By Mark Nichol The possessive case is used to indicate relationships between one person, place, or thing and another. However, it’s more accurate to call it by its alternate name, the genitive case (genitive means, essentially, â€Å"generation†), because in many uses, one person, place, or thing doesn’t actually belong to the other. The genitive is indicated one of two ways: A singular noun is followed by an apostrophe and the letter s (as with book’s), and an apostrophe alone follows a plural noun that ends in s or es (as with teams’ or arches’). The genitive form of an irregular plural noun, one in which a change in spelling, rather than s or es, marks the word as having a plural form (such as men), is treated as if the word were a singular noun (men’s). Here are examples of the seven categories of genitive use. 1. One type of genitive case is that denoting occupation, or ownership or possession, as in â€Å"She walked into Jane’s office† or â€Å"John’s car is being repaired.† (In all genitive forms, the noun to which the apostrophe or the apostrophe and the s are attached is called the dependent, or modifier, noun; the word with which it is associated is the head, or modified, noun.) 2. Another is relationship, as in â€Å"The school’s principal is retiring this year.† (This idea can also be represented by omitting the apostrophe and the s â€Å"The school principal is retiring this year† but the meaning is slightly different; in the latter sentence, the reference is to a person identified as the school principal, whereas the genitive form treats the school and the principal as separate entities.) In this category, the idea can be expressed in a phrase beginning with the head noun: â€Å"The principal of the school is retiring this year.† The previous type is not so flexible; â€Å"She walked into the office of Jane† is awkward, and constructions such as â€Å"She walked into the office belonging to [or occupied by] Jane† are usually unnecessarily verbose. 3. The genitive can also be used to express agency, or representation, as in â€Å"The board’s secretary consulted the minutes from the last meeting.† (The secretary is a member of the board but technically doesn’t belong to it.) â€Å"The secretary of the board consulted the minutes from the last meeting† is also correct, but as in the previous example, the emphasis is slightly different, and the first version is more concise. 4. Description is another function of the genitive, as in â€Å"She admired the fabric’s glossy sheen.† (Loosely speaking, the glossy sheen â€Å"belongs† to the fabric, but the phrase is, strictly, speaking, a description.) 5. Another category is that relating to the role of the person, place, or thing that serves as the subject of a sentence, as in â€Å"The officer’s report was conclusive.† (â€Å"The report of the officer was conclusive† has the same slight distinction of meaning as similar constructions in previous examples.) 6. Then there is the role of the person, place, or thing identified as the object of a sentence, as in â€Å"The baby’s delivery was uneventful† (which can be rendered â€Å"The delivery of the baby was uneventful† with a slight difference in the meaning). 7. The most troublesome genitive form is that in which a phrase including of is truncated, as in â€Å"He gave two weeks’ notice† in place of â€Å"He gave notice of two weeks†: Many writers mistakenly treat â€Å"two weeks† as simply a modifier of notice (â€Å"He gave two weeks notice†) rather than correctly including the apostrophe to indicate the genitive case. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire YouTaser or Tazer? Tazing or Tasering?The 7 Types of Possessive Case

5 Building Blocks of Your Characters Personality

5 Building Blocks of Your Characters Personality 5 Building Blocks of Your Character’s Personality 5 Building Blocks of Your Character’s Personality By Mark Nichol Now that you’ve decided what your character’s motivation is, it’s time to actually construct the vessel in which this purpose will reside. Just how do you build a person? By creating a life where none existed. Start at the base, and work your way up: 1. Childhood How was the character’s early life? What was the person’s family like? It doesn’t take much effort to stray too far into pop psychology, but household composition and environment have a significant bearing on personality. So does one’s experiences in school and in social settings as a child and an adolescent. Is domestic trauma in the character’s past? Social stigma at school? An unusual amount of teenage angst? Were they abused, neglected, spoiled, enriched? Were they denied a childhood, or unable to outgrow it? You don’t need to write your character’s biography, but you should know the outline. 2. Relationships Is the character a loner, or a social butterfly? What type of family and friends does the character have? How do they interact with acquaintances and strangers? Do they have a romantic relationship or casual sexual partners? If they’re gay, are they out, or closeted? Are they extremely close to a few friends, or do they have a wide but shallow social circle? 3. Livelihood What does the character do for a living? That may be integral to the story, or it may be incidental. Readers deserve to know, though. But don’t lock in a stereotype. It’s easy to associate personality traits with certain professions or pastimes. What’s not so easy but is oh, so satisfying is to cast against type: How about a happy-go-lucky private eye? A softhearted crook? A wizard who can’t spell straight? Do they like their job? Are they fulfilled, or frustrated? Good at what they do, or inept? How do they relate to those above and below them in the workplace hierarchy? Do they lie, cheat, or steal, or are they a paragon of productivity? Either way, are they rewarded, or punished, or ignored? 4. Pastimes What does your character do after work, on weekends? Where do they vacation? What are their hobbies, interests, passions? Do they have an eccentric or unexpected avocation? Do they have a remarkable skill or talent no one knows about? Are they philanthropic or charitable, or is all their spare time given to family and friends, or are they devoted only to themselves? 5. Outlook Is the sun always shining, or does a perpetual rain cloud perch just over the character’s shoulder? Are they blithe, cheerful, confident? Suspicious, resentful, fearful? Whether your character’s glass is half full or half empty will determine the story’s tone, so check the person’s beverage before you put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper. What are your character’s political views and social opinions? Are they religious? Skeptical? Atheistic? Scientifically minded, or superstitious? Are they charismatic, or a wallflower? So many questions! But so many answers must be provided and many more must be discovered on the journey that is the act of writing. (And some answers may change.) This character design is essential to your success not just for your main character but also, to varying degrees, for major and minor supporting players and for walk-ons. Whether you’re aiming for high literature or genre fiction, the extent to which you care about your characters and their personalities will in large part determine how readers respond to them. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial Expressions50 Diminutive Suffixes (and a Cute Little Prefix)Preposition Mistakes #3: Two Idioms