E a fear/fears, a hope/hopes, a suspicion/suspicions

These can be used with that-clauses introduced by there:

There is a fear/There are fears that he has been murdered. We can also have a suspicion that... Something can arouse a fear/fears, a hope/hopes, a suspicion/suspicions.

14 The form of the possessive/genitive case

A 's is used with singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in s:

a man's job the people's choice

men's work the crew's quarters

a woman's intuition the horse's mouth

the butcher's (shop) the bull's horns

a child's voice women's clothes

the children's room Russia's exports

B A simple apostrophe (') is used with plural nouns ending in s: a girls' school the students' hostel

the eagles' nest the Smiths' car

C Classical names ending in s usually add only the apostrophe:

Pythagoras'Theorem Archimedes'Law Sophocles'plays

D Other names ending in s can take 's or the apostrophe alone:

Mr Jones's (or Mr Jones' house) Yeats's (or Yeats') poems

E With compounds, the last word takes the 's:

my brother-in-law's guitar Names consisting of several words are treated similarly.

Henry the Eighth's wives the Prince of Wales's helicopter 's can also be used after initials:

the PM's secretary the MP's briefcase the VIP's escort Note that when the possessive case is used, the article before the person or thing 'possessed' disappears:

the daughter of the politician = the politician's daughter

the intervention of America = America's intervention

the plays of Shakespeare = Shakespeare's plays

15 Use of the possessive/genitive case and of + noun

A The possessive case is chiefly used of people, countries or animals as shown above. It can also be used:

1 Of ships and boats: the ship's bell, the yacht's mast

2 Of planes, trains, cars and other vehicles, though here the of construction is safer:

a glider's wings or the wings of a glider

the tram's heating system or the heating system of the train

3 In time expressions'

a week's holiday today's paper tomorrow's weather

in two years' time ten minutes' break two hours' delay a ten-minute break, a two-hour delay are also possible: We have ten minutes' break/a ten-minute break

4 In expressions of money + worth:

£ l's worth of stamps ten dollars' worth of ice-cream

5 With for + noun + sake: for heaven's sake, for goodness' sake

6 In a few expressions such as'

a stone's throw journey's end the water's edge

7 We can say either a winter's day or a winter day and a summer's day or a summer day, but we cannot make spring or autumn possessive, except when they are personified: Autumn's return.

8 Sometimes certain nouns can be used m the possessive case without the second noun, a/the baker's/butcher's/chemist's/flonst's etc can mean 'a/the baker's/butcher's etc. shop'.

Similarly, a/the house agent's/travel agent's etc. (office) and the dentist 's/doctor 's/vet 's (surgery):

You can buy it at the chemist's He's going to the dentist's Names of the owners of some businesses can be used similarly:

Sotheby's, Clandge's

Some very well-known shops etc call themselves by the possessive form and some drop the apostrophe: Foyles, Harrods

Names of people can sometimes be used similarly to mean '.'s house':

We had lunch at Bill's. We met at Ann's.

B of + noun is used for possession.

1 When the possessor noun is followed by a phrase or clause.

The boys ran about, obeying the directions of a man with a whistle. I took the advice of a couple I met on the train and hired a car

2 With inanimate 'possessors', except those listed in A above:

the walls of the town the roof of the church the keys of the car However, it is often possible to replace noun X + of + noun Y by noun Y + noun X in that order:

the town walls the church roof the car keys The first noun becomes a sort of adjective and is not made plural:

the roofs of the churches = the church roofs (see 16) Unfortunately noun + of + noun combinations cannot always be replaced in this way and the student is advised to use of when in doubt.

16 Compound nouns A Examples of these:

1 Noun + noun:

London Transport Fleet Street Tower Bridge

hall door traffic warden petrol tank

hitch-hiker sky-jacker river bank

kitchen table winter clothes

2 Noun + gerund:

fruit picking lorry driving coal-mining

weight-lifting bird-watching surf-riding

3 Gerund + noun:

waiting list diving-board driving licence

landing card dining-room swimming pool

B Some ways in which these combinations can be used:

1 When the second noun belongs to or is part of the first:

shop window picture frame college library

church bell garden gate gear lever

But words denoting quantity: lump, part, piece, slice etc. cannot be used in this way:

a piece of cake a slice of bread

2 The first noun can indicate the place of the second:

city street corner shop country lane street market

3 The first noun can indicate the time of the second:

summer holiday Sunday paper November fogs

spring flowers dawn chorus

4 The first noun can state the material of which the second is made'

steel door rope ladder gold medal

stone wall silk shirt

wool and wood are not used here as they have adjective forms: woollen and wooden, gold has an adjective form golden, but this is used only figuratively:

a golden handshake a golden opportunity golden hair The first noun can also state the power/fuel used to operate the second:

gas fire petrol engine oil stove

5 The first word can indicate the purpose of the second:

coffee cup escape hatch chess board

reading lamp skatmg rink tin opener

golf club notice board football ground

6 Work areas, such as factory, farm, mine etc, can be preceded by the name of the article produced:

fish-farm gold-mine oil-rig or the type of work done:

inspection pit assembly plant decompression chamber

7 These combinations are often used of occupations, sports, hobbies and the people who practise them:

sheep farming sheep farmer pop singer wind surfing water skier disc jockey

and for competitions'

football match tennis tournament beauty contest car rally

8 The first noun can show what the second is about or concerned with. A work of fiction may be a detective/murder/mystery/ghost/horror/spy story. We buy bus/tram/plane tickets. We pay fuel/laundry/

milk/telephone bills, entry fees, income tax, car insurance, water rates, parking fines.

Similarly with committees, departments, talks, conferences etc: housing committee, education department, peace talks

9 These categories all overlap to some extent They are not meant to be mutually exclusive, but aim to give the student some general idea of the uses of these combinations and help with the stress.

C As will be seen from the stress-marks above:

1 The first word is stressed in noun + gerund and gerund + noun combinations, when there is an idea of purpose as in B5 above, and in combinations of type B7 and B8 above.

2 Both words are usually stressed in combinations of types Al, Bl-3 above, but inevitably there are exceptions.

3 In place-name combinations both words usually have equal stress:

King's Road Waterloo Bridge Leicester Square But there is one important exception. In combinations where the last word is Street, the word Street is unstressed'

Bond Street Oxford Street

3 Adjectives

17 Kinds of adjectives

A The mam kinds are:

(a) Demonstrative: this, that, these, those (see 9)

(b) Distributive: each, every (46); either, neither (49)

(c) Quantitative: some, any, no (50); little/few (5); many, much (25); one, twenty (349)

(d) Interrogative: which, what, whose (54)

(e) Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their (62)

(f) Of quality clever, dry, fat, golden, good, heavy, square (19)

B Participles used as adjectives

Both present participles (ing) and past participles (ed) can be used as adjectives. Care must be taken not to confuse them. Present participle adjectives, amusing, boring, tinng etc, are active and mean 'having this effect'. Past participle adjectives, amused, horrified, tired etc., are passive and mean 'affected in this way'.

The play was boring (The audience was bored.)

The work was tiring (The workers were soon tired)

The scene was horrifying. (The spectators were horrified.)

an infuriating woman (She made us furious)

an infuriated woman (Something had made her furious.)

C Agreement

Adjectives in English have the same form for singular and plural, masculine and feminine nouns:

a good boy, good boys a good girl, good girls The only exceptions are the demonstrative adjectives this and that, which change to these and those before plural nouns:

this cat, these cats that man, those men

D Many adjectives/participles can be followed by prepositions: good at, tired of (see 96)

18 Position of adjectives: attributive and predicative use

A Adjectives in groups (a) - (e) above come before their nouns:

this book which boy my dog Adjectives in this position are called attributive adjectives

B Adjectives of quality, however, can come either before their nouns: a rich man a happy girl

or after a verb such as (a) be, become, seem: Tom became rich Ann seems happy

or (b) appear, feel, get/grow (= become), keep, look (= appear), make,

smell, sound, taste, turn-Tom felt cold. He got/grew impatient He made her happy. The idea sounds interesting.

Adjectives in this position are called predicative adjectives. Verbs used

in this way are called link verbs or copulas

C Note on link verbs (see also 169)

A problem with verbs in B(b) above is that when they are not used as link verbs they can be modified by adverbs in the usual way. This confuses the student, who often tries to use adverbs instead of adjectives after link verbs. Some examples with adjectives and adverbs may help to show the different uses'

He looked calm (adjective) = He had a calm expression.

He looked calmly (adverb) at the angry crowd (looked here is a

deliberate action.)

She turned pale (adjective) = She became pale

He turned angrily (adverb) to the man behind him. (turned here is a

deliberate action.)

The soup tasted horrible (adjective) (It had a horrible taste.)

He tasted the soup suspiciously (adverb). (tasted here is a deliberate

action.)

D Some adjectives can be used only attributively or only predicatively, and some change their meaning when moved from one position to the other.

bad/good, big/small, heavy/light and old, used in such expressions as bad sailor, good swimmer, big eater, small farmer, heavy drinker, light sleeper, old boy/fnend/soldier etc., cannot be used predicatively without changing the meaning: a small farmer is a man who has a small farm, but The ifarmer is small means that he is a small man physically Used otherwise, the above adjectives can be in either position (For little, old, young, see also 19 B.)

Chief, main, principal, sheer, uttercome before their nouns frightenedmay be in either position, but afraid and upsetmust follow the verb and so must adrift, afloat, alike(see 21 G), alive, alone, ashamed, asleep.

The meaning of early and late may depend on their position: an early/a late train means a train scheduled to run early or late in the day The tram is early/late means that it is before/after its proper time poor meaning 'without enough money' can precede the noun or follow the verb

poor meaning 'unfortunate' must precede the noun poor meaning 'weak/inadequate' precedes nouns such as student, worker etc but when used with inanimate nouns can be in either position:

He has poor sight His sight is poor.

£ Use of and

With attributive adjectives and is used chiefly when there are two or more adjectives of colour It is then placed before the last of these:

a green and brown carpet a red, white and blue flag With predicative adjectives and is placed between the last two'

The day was cold, wet and windy.

19 Order of adjectives of quality

A Several variations are possible but a fairly usual order is. adjectives of

(a) size (except little; but see C below)

(b) general description (excluding adjectives of personality, emotion etc.)

(c) age, and the adjective little (see B)

(d) shape

(e) colour

(f) material

(g) origin

(h) purpose (these are really gerunds used to form compound

nouns walking stick, riding boots)

a long sharp knife a small round bath

new hexagonal coins blue velvet curtains

an old plastic bucket an elegant French clock Adjectives of personality/emotion come after adjectives of physical description, including dark, fair, pale, but before colours:

a small suspicious official a long patient queue

a pale anxious girl a kindly black doctor

an inquisitive brown dog

B little, old and young are often used, not to give information, but as part of an adjective-noun combination. They are then placed next to their nouns:

Your nephew is a nice little boy. That young man drives too fast little + old + noun is possible a little old lady But little + young is not

When used to give information, old and young occupy position (c) above:

a young coloured man an old Welsh harp Adjectives of personality/emotion can precede or follow young/old

a young ambitious man an ambitious young man young in the first example carries a stronger stress than young in the second, so the first order is better if we wish to emphasize the age little can be used similarly in position (c).

a handy little calculator an expensive little hotel

a little sandy beach a little grey foal

But small is usually better than little if we want to emphasize the size. (For little meaning 'a small amount', see 5)

C fine, lovely, nice, and sometimes beautiful, + adjectives of size (except little), shape and temperature usually express approval of the size etc. If we say a beautiful big room, a lovely warm house, nice/fine thick steaks we imply that we like big rooms, warm houses and thick steaks.

fine, lovely and nice can be used similarly with a number of other adjectives:

fine strong coffee a lovely quiet beach a nice dry day When used predicatively, such pairs are separated by and:

The coffee was fine and strong.

The day was nice and dry. beautiful is not much used in this sense as a predicative adjective.

D pretty followed by another adjective with no comma between them is an adverb of degree meaning very/quite: She's a pretty tall girl means She is quite/very tall. But a pretty, tall girl or, more usually, a tall, pretty girl means a girl who is both tall and pretty.

20 Comparison

A There are three degrees of comparison:

B One-syllable adjectives form their comparative and superlative by adding er and est to the positive form:

bright brighter brightest Adjectives ending in e add r and st: brave braver bravest

C Adjectives of three or more syllables form their comparative and superlative by putting more and most before the positive: interested more interested most interested

frightening more frightening most frightening

D Adjectives of two syllables follow one or other of the above rules. Those ending in ful or re usually take more and most: doubtful more doubtful most doubtful obscure more obscure most obscure

Those ending in er, y or ly usually add er, est: clever cleverer cleverest

pretty prettier prettiest (note that the y becomes i) silly sillier silliest

E Irregular comparisons:

bad worse worst

far farther farthest (of distance only)

further furthest (used more widely; see F, G)

good better best

little less least

many/much more most

old elder eldest (of people only)

older oldest (of people and things)