’s/of ; personal pronouns; possessives; reflexive pronouns; there/it + to be
Context listening
‘Market Street’ is a soap opera which appears on TV every evening. You are going to hear a girl tell her friend what happened last night. Look at the pictures. The end of the story is missing. Can you guess what happened?
Listen and check if you were right.
Here are some sentences about the recording. Fill in the gaps with the words in the box. Then listen again and check your answers.
Here are some sentences from the recording. Can you put the apostrophe (’) in the correct place?
I missed last night’s programme.
Cara is Sallys sister.
He wants to leave his parents house.
He works in the newsagents.
Cara is Sallys sister.
He used Sallys key.
(See anwers at the foot of this page.)
GRAMMAR
Possessive ’s/of
We use ’s with people and animals:
The boy’s bedroom was very untidy. (not the bedroom of the boy)
The dog’s teeth are very sharp.
and with time expressions:
I missed last night’s programme.
but we usually use of instead of ’s with things:
What’s the price of that holiday? (not the holiday’s price)
Sometimes we don’t say the second noun when it is a home or a business:
I stayed at Sally’s (= Sally’s flat)
He works in the newsagent’s. (= the newsagent’s shop)
The apostrophe s (’s) goes in a different place for singular and plural nouns:
my cousin’s friends (= one cousin)
my cousins’ friends (= more than one cousin)
Personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and possessive determiners
We use I, you, he etc. for the subject of the verb and we use me, you, him etc. for the object of the verb:
She gave him her key.
He invited them to a party.
Possessive determiners and possessive pronouns
We use possessive determiners (my, your, his etc.) before a noun:
I went with my friends.
His means ‘of a boy or a man’ and her means ‘of a girl or a woman’:
He sees his girlfriend every night.
She shares a flat with her brother.
We use possessive pronouns (mine, yours etc.) without a noun:
Give that key to her. It’s not yours. (= it’s not your key)
This bicycle is the boy’s.
This is the boy’s bicycle.
This bicycle belongs to the boy.
of mine,yours/his/hers/ ours/theirs etc.
We can say:
Some of my friends
or some friends of mine (yours/his/hers/ours/theirs etc.)
(not some friends of me)
My/your/his/her/our/their Own
We use own to emphasise that something belongs to someone:
He doesn’t have his own flat. (= a flat just for him)
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
We use myself, yourself etc.
when the subject and the object are the same person/thing:
Tim hurt himself when he fell off his bike. (= Tim (subject and object) was hurt)
Sam cried when Tim hurt him. (= Sam (object) was hurt)
We use Reflexive pronouns with enjoy (your)self, behave (your)self, help (your)self:
Help yourself to some food.
Sally really enjoyed herself.
By (your)self means alone.
We can also say on (your) own:
Sally wanted to be by herself. or on her own.
There and it + to be
We use there + to be to say somebody/
something exists, especially when we talk about them for the first time:
There’s a party in Cara’s flat.
There were lots of people in the flat.
Is there a newsagent’s near here?
We say There is before a singular noun and There are before a plural noun.
There’s a shop on the corner.
There are lots of shops on the main street
It is vs there is
We can’t use it is in the same way as there is.
We use it is to talk about something we have already discussed:
There’s a newsagent in this street. It’s on the corner.
(not It’s a newsagent in this street. It’s on the corner.)
We can use it + to be to talk about time, weather and distance:
It’s sunny here and it’s nine o’clock in the evening.
It’s ten kilometres from here to the city centre.
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