Nouns, articles & quantity · CEFR B1 · Independent
's or of? — English nouns and articles
People and animals take ’s. Objects and ideas usually take "of". Time expressions take ’s too — a day's work, two weeks' notice.
The shape
person's thing · the + thing + of + the + thing
Choose the natural way to show belonging.
In Hindi
लोगों और जानवरों के साथ ’s। चीज़ों और विचारों के साथ आम तौर पर "of"।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
The room's corner was dark. | The corner of the room was dark. A room is an object, so "of" sounds natural and ’s does not. |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Questions people ask
- What is the 's or of? used for?
- People and animals take ’s. Objects and ideas usually take "of". Time expressions take ’s too — a day's work, two weeks' notice. In practice: choose the natural way to show belonging.
- How do you form the 's or of??
- person's thing · the + thing + of + the + thing.
- What is the most common mistake with the 's or of??
- Saying “The room's corner was dark.” instead of “The corner of the room was dark.”. A room is an object, so "of" sounds natural and ’s does not.
Where 's or of? fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
's or of? is a CEFR B1 structure — the independent band — and it belongs to nouns, articles & quantity. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the 's or of? →