That70'sLisa Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 We're doing Town level of MCT. My understanding: John's hat is in her car. John's is a (possessive) noun, yes? (Or no?) Her is a (possessive) adjective, yes? (Or no?) If I change the sentence to "His hat is in Sarah's car", His is now an adjective, even though the function of the word is the same as John's, a noun. This doesn't make sense to me - parts of speech depend on the function of the word, yes? Why is the same function labeled as two different parts of speech? Where is my mistake? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 A possessive noun may function as an adj by providing more information about the noun it possesses. Don't get caught up in the terminology. It really is not worth worrying about the distinction. Your understanding of how the words are functioning is correct and that is the main issue. (Plenty of resources refer to them as possessive noun adjs or possessive nouns functioning as adjs. A quick Google brought up this: http://misterfisher.tripod.com/possadj.pdf) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaredluvsjoanie Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 (edited) Just as pronouns take the place of nouns, posessive pronouns take the place of posessive nouns. The function of posessives is adjectival; they give more information about a noun. Whose car? Sarah's. Whose car? Hers. Sarah's and hers are interchangeable just as are John's and his. So yes, they are nouns, but their FUNCTION is as adjectives. I hope that helps! Edited July 6, 2017 by JNDodge 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That70'sLisa Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 A possessive noun may function as an adj by providing more information about the noun it possesses. Don't get caught up in the terminology. It really is not worth worrying about the distinction. Your understanding of how the words are functioning is correct and that is the main issue. (Plenty of resources refer to them as possessive noun adjs or possessive nouns functioning as adjs. A quick Google brought up this: http://misterfisher.tripod.com/possadj.pdf) Aha! Thanks so much! Just as pronouns take the place of nouns, posessive pronouns take the place of posessive nouns. The function of posessives is adjectival; they give more information about a noun. Whose car? Sarah's. Whose car? Hers. Sarah's and hers are interchangeable just as are John's and his. So yes, they are nouns, but their FUNCTION is as adjectives. I hope that helps! Perfect! Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaredluvsjoanie Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 Oopsies! I just noticed that I misspelled "possessive." 😮 Sorry about that. I'm not sure how that slipped past my brain THREE TIMES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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