Exercises

1. Replace the phrases by the Possessive case where possible:

1. the father of Bob;

2. the book of my brother;

3. the cat of the girls;

4. the child of her sister;

5. the order of the colonel;

6. the room of my mother;

7. the garden of my family;

8. the trousers of the boys;

9. the cage of the bird;

10. the hamster of Ann;

11. the pets of the children;

12. the sister of my aunt;

13. the money of my brother;

14. the cat of my great grandmother.

2. Complete the sentences with the possessive form of the noun in parentheses.

1. (Mrs. Smith) ________ husband often gives her flowers.

2. (boy) The ______ hat is red.

3. (boys) The ______ hats are red.

4. (children) The ________ toys are all over the floor.

5. (child) I fixed the ______ bicycle.

6. (baby) The _______ toys are in the crib.

7. (babies) The _______ toys are in the crib.

8. (wives) Their ______ names are Cindy and Judy.

9. (wife) That is my ______ coat.

10. (Sally) _______ last name is White.

11. (Phyllis) _______ last name is Young.

12. (boss) That’s my ______ office.

13. (bosses) Those are my _______ offices.

14. (woman) This is a _______ purse.

15. (women) The store sells ______ clothes.

16. (sister) Do you know my _______ husband?

17. (sisters) Do you know my _______ husbands?

18. (yesterday) Did you read _______ paper?

19. (today) There are many problems in ______ world.

20. (month) It would cost me a ______ salary to buy that refrigerator.

3. Correct mistakes in the use of possessive nouns by adding apostrophes and final –s/-es as necessary.

1. I enjoy visiting friend houses.

2. When I was in Chicago, I stayed at a friend house.

3. My uncle is my father brother.

4. I have four aunts. All of my aunt homes are within walking distance of my mother apartment.

5. Mike’s aunt oldest son is a violinist.

6. Five astronauts were aboard the space shuttle. The astronaut safe return to earth was a welcome sight to millions of television viewers.

7. The children favorite part of the circus was the trapeze act.

8. When the child toy broke, I fixed it.

9. I borrowed the secretary pen to fill out the application form.

10. It is the people right to know what the city is going to do about the housing problem.

11. Bill wife is a factory worker.

12. Bess husband is a housepainter.

13. Quite a few diplomats are assigned to our city. Almost all of the diplomat children attend a special school.

14. A diplomat work invariably involves numerous meetings.

4. In this exercise you have to join two nouns. Sometimes you have to use an apostrophe (’), with or without s. Sometimes you have to use … of …

Examples: the door/ the room the door of the room

the mother/Ann Ann’s mother

1. the camera / Tom _______________________

2. the eyes / the cat _______________________

3. the top / the page _________________________

4. the daughter / Charles _________________________

5. the newspaper / today _________________________

6. the toys / the children _________________________

7. the name / your wife _________________________

8. the name / the street _________________________

9. the name / the man I saw you with yesterday _________________________

10. the new manager / the company __________________________________

11. the result / the football match ______________________________________

12. the car / Mike’s parent ____________________________________________

13. the birthday / my father ___________________________________________

14. the new headmaster / the school ___________________________________

15. the garden / our neighbour ________________________________________

16. the ground floor / the building _____________________________________

17. the children / Don and Mary _______________________________________

18. the economic policy / the government _______________________________

19. the husband / the woman talking to Tom ____________________________

20. the house / my aunt and uncle _____________________________________

5. Read each sentence and write a new sentence using ‘s with the underlined words.

Example: The meeting tomorrow has been cancelled.

Tommorow’s meeting has been cancelled.

1. The storm last week caused a lot of damage.

Last ______________________________________

2. The only cinema in the town has been closed down.

The t______________________________________

3. Exports from Britain to the US have fallen recently.

B_________________________________________

4. There will be a big crowd at the football match this evening.

There will be a big crowd at this _______________

5. Tourism is the main industry in the region.

The r_______________________________________

6. Laura is showing Melanie her photos. Put in the possessive form of the nouns.

Laura: This was taken in (1) …………. (my friend) garden.

It was (2) ……………….. (the twins) birthday party.

This is Kerry, (3) ……………… (Luke) girlfriend.

And that’s (4) …………….. (Jason) sister Emily.

Melanie: And who are these two?

Laura: That’s (5) …………….. (Debbie) mother.

She’s talking to Monica Davis, (6) ……………. (her children) teacher.

And that’s (7) ………….. (the Lanskys) dog sitting on (8) ………………..

(Olivia) foot.

7. Rewrite the underlined phrases using the possessive form.

1. The prices this year are even lower.

2. From here it’s a drive of two hours.

3. I read about it in the paper yesterday.

4. I just want a rest for five minutes.

5. It’s the special offer for this month.

6. I’ll see you in a week.

Expressions of Quantity with Countable and Uncountable Nouns

An expression of quantity may precede a noun. Some expressions of quantity are used only with countable nouns, some only with uncountable, and some are used with both countable and uncountable nouns.

EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY	USED WITH COUNT NOUNS	USED WITH UNCOUNT NOUNS
one each every	one apple each apple every apple	Ø Ø Ø
two,etc. both a couple of a few several many a number of	two apples both apples a couple of apples a few apples several apples many apples a number of apples	Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø
a little much a great deal of	Ø Ø Ø	a little rice much rice a great deal of rice
no some/any a lot of/lots of plenty of most all	no apples some/any apples a lot of/lots of apples plenty of apples most apples all apples	no rice some/any rice a lot of/lots of rice plenty of rice most rice all rice

A few/a little give a positive idea; they indicate that something exists, is present.

e.g. She has been here only two weeks, but she has already made a few friends. (Positive idea: She has made some friends.)

I’m very pleased. I’ve been able to save a little money this month.

(Positive idea: I have saved some money instead of spending all of it.)

Few/little give a negative idea; they indicate that something is largely absent. Very(+few/little) makes the negative stronger, the number/amount smaller.

e.g. I feel sorry for her. She has (very) few friends. (Negative idea: She does not have many friends; she has almost no friends.)

I have (very) little money. I don’t even have enough money to buy food for dinner. (Negative idea: I do not have much money; I have almost no money.)

Many is used with count nouns: e.g. many apples.

Much is used with noncount nouns: e.g. much fruit.