Chicago Style Workout 28: Grammar, Part 2

/ July 31, 2018

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Check Your Balance!

This workout, the second in a series of four on the subject of grammar, focuses on paragraphs 5.22–26 in CMOS 18. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering the questions.

Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. (We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: Dictionaries and style guides sometimes disagree. These questions are designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, which prefers the dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com. Other style guides may follow a different dictionary.

Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 28: Grammar, Part 2

1. The genitive of a singular noun is formed by adding -’s (“driver’s seat”) (“engineer’s opinion”).
2. The genitive of a plural noun that ends in -s or -es (“parents”) (“foxes”) is formed by adding an apostrophe before the plural ending (“parent’s house”) (“fox’es den”).
3. The genitive of an irregular plural noun is formed by adding -’s (“women’s rights”) (“mice’s cage”).
4. The genitive of a compound noun is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the first word in the compound (“parents’-in-law message”).
5. Nouns denoting inanimate things can often take either the inflected form (“the theater’s name”) or the of-genitive (“the name of the theater”).
6. When a double genitive is called for, both of and a possessive form may be used (“an idea of Hill’s”) (“a friend of my grandfather’s”).
7. If two or more nouns share possession of the same item, the last noun takes the genitive ending. For example, Peter and Harriet’s correspondence refers to the correspondence between Peter and Harriet.
8. If two or more nouns possess something separately, each noun takes its own genitive ending. For example, Peter’s and Harriet’s correspondence refers to Peter’s correspondence and also to Harriet’s correspondence, presumably with other people.
9. If a noun and a pronoun are used to express joint possession, only the pronoun shows possession. For example, Hilda and his vacation.
10. Commas frame an appositive noun phrase, even when restrictive: “In a conversation about songwriters, she pointed out that the poet, Robert Burns, wrote many songs.”

 

Photo: US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Anthony Sanchelli: “Nisha Morris works out during a physical training class designed to help women stay fit during their pregnancy, Feb. 17, 2012, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.”

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