possessive Hear it!

possessive Definition

pos·ses·sive (pə zes′iv)

adjective

  1. of possession, or ownership
    1. showing, or characterized by a desire for, possession a possessive child
    2. having or showing a desire to dominate, control, influence, etc. a possessive mother
  3. Gram. designating or of a case, form, or construction expressing possession or some like relationship: in English, this is expressed a) by the addition of a final s (for nouns and some pronouns) preceded or followed by an apostrophe, or sometimes by the addition of an apostrophe only after a final (s) sound (Ex.: John's book, women's lives, boys' games, conscience' sake) b) by a change of form in pronouns (Ex.: I, my, mine; you, your, yours; it, its; who, whose) c) by of preceding a form without the possessive ending (Ex.: lives of men) or preceding a form in the possessive case (Ex.: a play of Shakespeare's, a friend of mine — called a double possessive)

Etymology: L possessivus

noun

  1. the possessive case
  2. a word or phrase in this case

possessive Related Forms
pos·ses′·sively adverb pos·ses′·sive·ness noun
possessive Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • become: Do not let your dog become possessive of toys.
  • associate: Possessives associated with acronyms ( e.g. , RAE ), should be written as follows: ' The RAE's findings that.. .
  • get: This was famine land, yet he didn't get possessive about the wells being his by right of hard work!

Adjective modifier

  • little: He might be able to live with other dogs but Jack can be a little toy possessive.

Modifies a noun

  • pronoun: Which possessive pronouns can you see in the article?
  • apostrophe: Iain Connell, Uk I do not agree with dropping the possessive apostrophe.
  • determiner: For example, in " his visit to Mary " the possessive determiner is the subject of " visit " ( i.e.
  • adjective: To embrace his solicitor's address within the possessive adjective ' his ' involves a very brave step.
  • quantifier: Possessive quantifiers also try to find the longest match.
  • individualism: Or at least on the possessive individualism which characterizes the liberal theories of human rights.

Modifying Another Word

  • slightly: Apart from being slightly possessive about her bed she is good with other dogs.
  • too: The monk warns him about becoming too possessive in regard to her.
  • very: Gerald is very possessive about his clothes, which he did not like surrendering to the washing machine.
  • so: He had become so possessive I wasn't allowed to go out with friends or to visit family.
  • quite: Was this an extremely brave thing to do in the sense that writers tend to be quite possessive of their work?
  • fiercely: Commoners are fiercely possessive of their rights and their commons, and know them well.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: The monk warns him about becoming too possessive in regard to her.
  • feel: I feel quite possessive about these works because I once set four of them to music.