Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Noun possession and subject
From the Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar & Style, 2nd Edition
Given the question:
Reduce each of the following sentences to fewer words by using the possessive form.
Doing so will improve your writing style. Here's an example:
Original: The comedy routines of the Three Stooges aren't funny to me.
Revised: The Three Stooges' comedy routines aren't funny to me.
And the sentence:
The placement of the eyes of a donkey in its head enables it to see all four feet at
all times.
The answer given in the book is:
The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all
times.
Would it be incorrect to further reduce it as follows:
A donkey's eyes' placement in it's head enables it to see all four feet at all times.
I don't know much about grammar, but from what I can guess this has something to do with how the subject of the sentence is determined.
Given the question:
Reduce each of the following sentences to fewer words by using the possessive form.
Doing so will improve your writing style. Here's an example:
Original: The comedy routines of the Three Stooges aren't funny to me.
Revised: The Three Stooges' comedy routines aren't funny to me.
And the sentence:
The placement of the eyes of a donkey in its head enables it to see all four feet at
all times.
The answer given in the book is:
The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all
times.
Would it be incorrect to further reduce it as follows:
A donkey's eyes' placement in it's head enables it to see all four feet at all times.
I don't know much about grammar, but from what I can guess this has something to do with how the subject of the sentence is determined.
Top answer
First of all: You can't write it's head because it means it is head . A donkey's eyes' placement is grammatically correctly formed but there is a tendency to avoid two successive words in the genitive (donkey's eyes'). I wonder what the native members say about this.
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First of all: You can't write it's head because it means it is head. A donkey's eyes' placement is grammatically correctly formed but there is a tendency to avoid two successive words in the genitive (donkey's eyes'). I wonder what the native members say about this.
CB
CB
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