Leçon d’anglais – Le S génitif – father’s house or fathers’ house ?

The genitive S – Marking possession

To mark the possession in English the most common form is the genitive S (le cas possessif). The genitiv S is preceded by an apostrophe:

• This is my father‘s car. This is Susan’s idea. The child‘s seat.
• This is my friend‘s beautiful house.

To avoid confusion with plural, you may use the form with of:

• This is the house of my friends. (plural)

If, however, there is no confusion possible, the genitive S is better.

It is the same with nouns ending with an S:

• The actress’s role. The baroness’s dress. The mistress’s garden. Mr Jones’s son. [Pronounce it thee actressiz role. The baronessiz dress. The mistressiz garden. Mr Jonesiz son.]

Attention plural:

In the plural the apostrophe is placed behind the plural S without the genitive S:

• The Smiths’ mansion. = The mansion of the Smiths. (family)
• The Dagoberts’ treasure. = The treasure of the Dagoberts. (family)
• My friends’ party ended early in the morning.
• I am not allowed to use my parents’ computer.

But:

• Mr Smith‘s mansion. = The mansion of Mr. Smith.
• Mrs. Dagobert‘s treasure. = The treasure of Mrs. Dagobert.

There is no plural or genitive S for naming the family:

• The Smith family. The Kelly family. (the name of the family is Smith / Kelly)

If you are referring to a famous person, it is more common to place just the ‘s as pronoun.

If the context is clear you do not need to specify the noun:

• Mike‘s car is faster than Ben‘s. (Ben’s car, the car of Ben)
• We ate at Carl‘s last evening.  (at Carl’s house)
• Whose pencil is this? It’s Catherine‘s. (the pencil of Catherine)

Shared possessions

If a possession is shared only the last subject is followed by a genitive S:

• This is Mike and Susan‘s car. (This car belongs to Mike and Susan.)

If things are not shared, every subject is followed by a genitive S:

• Mike‘s and Susan‘s car are at the garage. (Both cars – the car of Mike and the car of Susan – are in the garage.)

Phrasal genitive

If you have a double genitive “the body guard of the President of France” or  an idiomatic genitive (a set expression) “two weeks’ notice” the same rules apply:

• He was given one week‘s notice. (a notice of one week)
• He was given two weeks’ notice. ( a notice of tow weeks)
• We will see you in two / three days’ time. (in two days (the day after tomorrow) / in three days) If it is just one day, do not say: In one day’s time. (idiomatically wrong!) Better: We will see you tomorrow.)
• The Chancellor of Germany‘s speech was reall boring.   (Chancellor of Germany considered as one fixed lexical group)
•  The emperor of Rome‘s influence grew with every conquest.
• The Irish folktale “Guleesh and the King of France‘s daughter” is written by Neil Philip and illustrated by Henry Underhill.

Compound words

Fixed noun groups do not take a genitive S:

• class action (a group of complainants bringing jointly a case before the court / tribunal) , class war (war between social classes), Christmas Eve, chor