Apostrophe Question

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WilliamRota

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Shouldn't the sentence below take an ''s'' after the noun, as possessive mechanism?
'' [...] on his jacket sleeve ''

As in: ''Today's Weather News''.

Thank you so much ;-)
 

emsr2d2

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WilliamRota

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SoothingDave

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I would not say a flat "no" to your question. It is much more common to discuss a "jacket sleeve" or a "car door" like that and not using the possessive.

Some people say that the possessive "apostrophe s" should only be used for animate objects, like people.

I am not one of those people. In some cases, the possessive can be used for things. Like "the survey's results made it clear that the people were not in favor of the new legislation."

But in most cases, as I already said, it is natural to say "the car door" and not "the car's door."
 

emsr2d2

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I shouldn't have said a flat no either. However, in general, I would say "the jacket sleeve". Had I already mentioned the specific jacket, there is a chance I might use a possessive.

I bought a lovely jacket but I had to take it back to the shop.
Why?
The jacket's sleeve had a small tear in it.

Note that I would be more likely to simply say "The sleeve had a small tear" but if I had to use "jacket" in the sentence, I would use the possessive with it, rather than "The jacket sleeve had a small tear in it".
 
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