Unit 81. -'s (your sister's name) and of... (the name of the book)
Unit 81; Part A

• Tom's computer isn't working. (not the computer of Tom)
• How old are Chris's children? (not the children of Chris)
• What's (= What is) your sister's name?
• What's Tom's sister's name?
• Be careful. Don't step on the cat's tail.
Note that you can use -'s without a following noun:
• This isn't my book. It's my sister's. (= my sister's book)
We do not always use -'s for people. For example, we would use of ... in this sentence:
• What was the name of the man who phoned you? ('the man who phoned you' is too long to be followed by -'s)
Note that we say a woman's hat (= a hat for a woman), a boy's name (= a name for a boy), a bird's egg (= an egg laid by a bird) etc.
Unit 81; Part B

my sister's room (= her room - one sister) Mr Carter's house (= his house)
With a plural noun (sisters, friends etc.) we put an apostrophe at the end of the word (-s'):
my sisters' room (= their room - two or more sisters)
the Carters' house (= their house - Mr and Mrs Carter)
If a plural noun does not end in -s (for example men/women/children/people) we use -'s:
the men's changing room a children's book (= a book for children)
Note that you can use -'s after more than one noun:
Jack and Karen's wedding Mr and Mrs Carter's house
Unit 81; Part C

the door of the garage (not the garage's door)
the name of the book
the owner of the restaurant
Sometimes the structure noun + noun is possible (see Unit 80):
the garage door the restaurant owner
We say the beginning/end/middle of ... , the top/bottom of... , the front/back/side of ...
the beginning of the month (not the month's beginning)
the top of the hill
the back of the car
Unit 81; Part D

the government's decision or the decision of the government
the company's success or the success of the company
It is also possible to use -'s for places. So you can say:
the city's streets the world's population Italy's prime minister
Unit 81; Part E

• Do you still have yesterday's newspaper?
• Next week's meeting has been cancelled.
In the same way, you can say today's / tomorrow's / this evening's / Monday's etc.
We also use -'s (or -s' with plural words) with periods of time:
• I've got a week's holiday starting on Monday.
• Julia has got three weeks' holiday.
• I live near the station - it's only about ten minutes' walk.
Exercises
![]() | Unit 80 Unit 81 Unit 82 | ![]() |
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