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English: What’s this called? Is it wrong? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6441 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 25 03 February 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I do this a lot in conversation and I'm pretty sure it's wrong but I don't care because it's logical and fits the flow of conversation. I don't even think anyone notices it in speech because I've never had anyone call me on it, although admittedly it looks silly in written English.
I'm wondering if there is a name for this and if any other languages do it where it is considered correct grammar. The situation is, when I need to describe something and make it plural, I do it as follows: For example, the man who lives next door to me has a book. I want to read the book, so he loans it to me. So one day I'm sitting at home reading the book and my wife asks me "who's book is that?" Without even thinking, I will reply "it's the guy next door's book." Now if we break this down logically, it makes sense. If my wife knew the guy's name was Bob, all I would have to say is "it's Bob's book." But she doesn't know his name, so if I were to say "it's Bob's book" that would spark the followup question "who's Bob?" (Plus, it's annoying to mention people by name in a story when the listener doesn't yet know who they are. Huge pet peeve of mine, but I digress) Who owns the book? Bob owns the book. Therefore, "it's Bob's book." Who owns the book? The guy next door owns the book. Therefore, "it's the guy next door's book." Who owns the book? [X] owns the book. Therefore, "it's [X]'s book." Tell me I'm crazy! That's super logical :D I know I should say "it belongs to the guy next door" or whatever, but that's not how my brain processes it. I have done this for years, heard other people do it, too, and only recently became aware that, while logical, it probably isn't correct. I feel better about myself when I have hear other people do this: Me: "Cool book! Who's is it?" Friend: "I know, right? It's the guy that I met on the train yesterday's. He gave it to me." Me: "Whoa! That CD is rare! Who's is it?" Friend: "It's this guy I work with's." etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| strikingstar Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5177 days ago 292 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 25 03 February 2012 at 2:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Or you could just say it's the neighbor's book :)
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4711 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 3 of 25 03 February 2012 at 2:34am | IP Logged | ||
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"who's book is that?"
You mean whose, I hope? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5266 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 25 03 February 2012 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah who's and whose are often difficult even for natives. Who's is the contraction for who is. Whose is the possessive pronoun. Another common one is its and it's. The possessive is its and the contraction representing it is is it's. Edited by iguanamon on 03 February 2012 at 3:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4893 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 5 of 25 03 February 2012 at 4:52am | IP Logged | ||
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"It's the guy's next door book" doesn't work at all.
I think "guy-next-door" must functions as a unit, as in: "the guy-next-door's book." I've never seen it written out either, but I think I talk like that too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5422 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 6 of 25 03 February 2012 at 5:26am | IP Logged | ||
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It's all still "correct" English , just somethings are in a more casual register.
It's called using the genitive a.k.a. possessive case by adding 's as a suffix to a noun to show that the noun possesses the following noun. In more relaxed speech we can often do away with the final noun since you know it from context. "It's this guy I work with's" would not be written down apart from in texts showing casual speech but it is totally acceptable just not formal. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6441 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 25 03 February 2012 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||
I'm so embarrassed. Yes, I meant "whose." I'm usually really good about who's/whose, it's/its, there/they're/their, too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6441 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 25 03 February 2012 at 6:29am | IP Logged | ||
Cool. I was thinking it would make more sense hyphenated, too. I'm treating "guy next door" as a unit, as the variable [X] in my first example. I didn't know if you could technically do that in English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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