The sentence

3. We still have a few male and female word forms (man/woman) and a few –ess endings that
refer to females: waiter/waitress, lion/lioness. In the case of people, this –ess ending is
becoming rare. In the interests of sexual equality, words like author and manager refer
to both sexes, rather than using *authoress* or manageress for a woman.
Identifying masculine and feminine through pronouns: ‘He/She is a student’
1. The word forms man and woman tell us that the reference is to male and female, but with
most nouns that refer to people, we don’t know whether the reference is to male or
female until we hear the pronoun:
My neighbour has just bought anew shed for his garden.
My is always telling us about her famous son.
2. Other typical nouns like this are:
adult, artist , child, cook, cousin, darling, dear, doctor, foreigner, friend, guest, journalist,
lawyer, musician, orphan, owner, parent, passenger, person, pupil, relation, relative,
scientist, singer, speaker, spouse, stranger, student, teacher, tourist, visitor, writer.
H. The genitive
How to show possesession with ‘s, s’ and the apostrophe (‘) on its own
1. We show possession in English with the genitive form of a noun. This means we normally
use ‘s and s’ for people and some living creatures. We put the possessive before the noun
it refers to: Frank’s car. (Not *the car of Frank/the car of Frank’s)
2. The simplest rule to remember is: Add ‘s to any personal noun unless it is in the form
of a plural ending in –s, -in which case, just add an apostrophe (‘). This means:
- add ‘s to singular nouns and names not ending in –s: a boy’s tie, Tom’s hat.
- add ‘s to singular nouns ending in –s: an actress’s careerm a waitress’s job.
- add ‘s to irregular plural nouns: children’s games, the men’s club, sheep’s wool.
- add an apostrophe (‘) after the –s of regular plurals: the girls’ uniforms.
- add ‘s to names ending in –s: Charles’s address, Doris’s party, St James’s Park.
Famous names ending in s just add (‘): Yeats’ poetry. This is pronounced /s/ or /iz/.
Apostrophe s (‘s/s’), compound noun, or ‘or’?
1. When we want to show possession with things, we can use of: the leg of the table.
However, we often prefer to use a compound noun instead of of: the table-leg.
2. We must us of when we can’t from a compound noun:
The book of the film ( Not *the film’s book*); the top of the box (Not *the box’s top*)
You can only learn these from experience. If you are in doubt, use of.
The use of ‘s and s’ with non-living things: ‘an hour’s journey’
We use ‘s and s’ with some non-living things:
- fixed phrases: the earth’s surface, journey’s end, the ship’s company
- time phrases (singular): an hour’s journey, a day’s work, a month’s salary
- time phrases (plural): two hours’ journey, two day’s work, two months’ salary
17