英语语法：47 Double Possessives

Grammar Girl here.

Today’s lesson involves a question of Cathy’s—or should that be “a question of Cathy”? By the end of this podcast, you’ll know which possessive to use.

Now, Cathy has been wondering about the so-called double possessive and asks, “Which is correct—‘I am a friend of Fred’ or ‘I am a friend of Fred’s’?” She points out that it would sound normal to say, “He’s a friend of mine,” and "mine" is the possessive. 

 Guest-writer Bonnie Trenga answers.

 
Cathy's right, though you usually use only one possessive at a time. Many purists believe that double possessives should be relegated¹ to informal and semiformal writing, if at all. Nevertheless, double possessives have appeared in good writing for centuries, and most people will find themselves using them on occasion (1).
 
How to Create Possessives
 
You use possessives to indicate who owns what. If Squiggly owns a car, you say, “This is Squiggly's car.” You use an apostrophe plus an "s" on the end of “Squiggly.” You can also form a possessive by using the word “of,” such as “The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.” (Of course, you could also say, “the United Kingdom’s Crown Jewels.”) These examples are just normal possessives. There’s nothing double about them. The confusion arises when you use both ways of making possessives at the same time, as in “a friend of Fred’s.” Here you have an apostrophe plus an "s" plus an “of.” Although such a double possessive is allowed, I personally prefer “Fred’s friend” over “a friend of Fred’s.” Why not just say, "He's Fred's friend"?
 
Incorrect Possessives
 
Nevertheless, to help us learn what’s right, let’s look at some possessives and double possessives that native speakers wouldn't use. It definitely sounds odd to say, “a car of Squiggly.” On the other hand, you could say, “a car of Squiggly's,” assuming he has lots of cars and you’re pointing out one of them. However, “a car of Squiggly's” doesn’t sound as natural to me as “one of Squiggly's cars.”
 
On the other hand, it’s perfectly² normal to say, “the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom” or “the United Kingdom’s Crown Jewels,” but it turns out that it’s ungrammatical to say, “the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom’s.” Here’s a clear-cut rule that helps explain this: When you’re talking about inanimate objects—objects that aren’t alive, such as “the United Kingdom”—you can’t use a double possessive (2). According to The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, for a double possessive to be legal, the object of the preposition “of” has to be “definite and human.” In other words, it’s fine to say, “a friend of my uncle’s” but not “a friend of the museum’s.” You have to say, “a friend of the museum.” However, according to this rule, it would be OK to say, “He's a friend of a friend’s,” but we’ve all heard the common expression “a friend of a friend.” I guess double possessives don’t always work. That should make some sticklers³ happy.
 
Avoiding Double Possessives
 
We could clear this all up by stating that we should just always avoid double possessives. Perhaps that would make life easier. Instead of “a friend of my uncle’s” or “a car of Squiggly's,” maybe we should always say, “my uncle’s friend” or “Squiggly’s car.” For the most part, you can’t go wrong if you follow this advice. You should probably avoid the double possessive anyway if you’re using formal English.
 
Useful Double Possessives
 
There are, however, some cases when a double possessive is very useful to help clarify your meaning.
 
For example, if you attempt to avoid the double possessive and say something like "This is Marie's portrait," you end up with an ambiguous sentence that could mean you are looking at a portrait of Marie or a portrait that is owned by Marie. You can fix the problem by substituting one of two sentences depending on what you mean. If you mean Marie owns the portrait, then the double possessive makes it clear: "This is a portrait of Marie's." On the other hand, if it is a lovely rendering⁴ of Marie, "This is a portrait of Marie" will serve you well.
 
Another time when you might need to use a double possessive is if you want to use a possessive pronoun, such as “theirs,” “hers,” or "mine," as Cathy noted⁵ in her initial question. In fact, it’s impossible to avoid using a double possessive in cases such as “She is a relative of his.” If you don’t like double possessives, you could reword such sentences by saying, “She is his relative,” “She is one of his relatives,” or, simply, “They are related.”
 
Double possessives might also be necessary if you’re using a “that,” “those,” “this,” or “these” in your possessive (3). For example, “the hat of Aardvark’s” sounds a bit odd to me, whereas “that hat of Aardvark’s” sounds a lot more natural.
 
In Summary
 
That question of Cathy’s was pretty tricky⁶. Or, rather, I might prefer to say, “Cathy’s question was pretty tricky.” The double possessive does have legitimate⁷ uses, but you might want to avoid the redundant⁸ possessive in formal writing and perhaps use only one possessive at a time if it sounds natural.

Administrative⁹

This show was written by Bonnie Trenga, author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, who blogs at。。。
Also this week, we've launched a new podcast called The Public Speaker's Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills. It's already getting great reviews, so head over to iTunes and check it out.
 
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That's all. Thanks for listening.
 

1 relegated   

v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant. 随后她被降级做助手了。
• I think that should be relegated to the garbage can of history. 我认为应该把它扔进历史的垃圾箱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 sticklers   

n.坚持…的人( stickler的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They infuriate word sticklers by presenting a and leaving the reader to decide which is correct. 它们会提出一堆解释让读者自己判断哪个是正确的，令人大为光火。 来自互联网

4 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

7 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

8 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

9 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。