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Possessive idioms
IDIOMS EXPRESSING POSSESSION
In order to understand and use 'possession' totally, please, study or revise the bases: test, test
You must master possessive adjectives thoroughly: my, your, his/her/its, our, their + Noun
as well as the possessive pronouns : mine, yours, his/hers/its, ours, theirs.
You must know how to build and use the genitive, or possessive case: the kid's toys ; the kids' toys; the children's toys.
Then, and only then, will you be ready to use some idioms concerning the possessive! 




A) 1) It must be remembered that the second term of the genitive cannot be preceded by an indefinite article.
Consequently, to express a sentence which would 'need one', you have to resort to an idiom:
- one of Peter's colleagues => a colleague of Peter's. => determiner + Noun + OF + possessor in the genitive case.
- one of her father's friends => a friend of her father's.
Let me insist on the importance of this possessive case, which is often 'forgotten' by learners.
2) The construction is the same with a possessive pronoun:
ex : Jim is one of her friends => Jim is a friend of hers. => determiner + Noun + OF + possessive pronoun .
ex : She' s one of their cousins => She's a cousin of theirs.
3) A construction with 'no' :
ex :This is none of his business => This is no business of his.
B) OWN replaces and mostly reinforces a pronoun, when it is with a possessive adjective.
It may also reinforce a noun when it is before it.
ex: Why do you use my computer? You have your own computer! (=> You have yours)
ex: Don't take my dress! Wear one of your own...(=> wear one of yours)
! On my own, on your own, on his or her own = alone!


It was easy, wasn't it?
Ready for the test?

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English exercise "Possessive idioms" created by here4u with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from here4u]
Click here to see the current stats of this English test

End of the free exercise to learn English: Possessive idioms
A free English exercise to learn English.
Other English exercises on the same topics : Speaking | Idioms | Genitive | All our lessons and exercises