We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary's

[Eva Spain]

When can I use a saxon genitive and no?

Hellow. Next to I'n going two reflections from different points of wiew. I would like knowing if they are right. Thanks.

Both sentences are technically correct, but they convey slightly different meanings.

1. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary's."

This sentence suggests that Mary has friends, and the speaker had a meal with a specific group of those friends. It emphasizes that the friends belong to Mary specifically.

2. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary."

This sentence implies that Mary is the one who introduced the friends, but it does not necessarily imply that they are Mary's own friends.

The emphasis here is on the fact that Mary is the connection between the speaker and the friends.

In summary, both sentences are grammatically correct, but they subtly differ in terms of the ownership and relationship between Mary and the friends mentioned.

 

[Tarheel]

Hellow. Next to I'n going two reflections from different points of wiew. I would like knowing if they are right. [Deleted.]

Both sentences are technically correct, but they convey slightly different meanings.

1. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary's."

This sentence suggests that Mary has friends, and the speaker had a meal with a specific group of those friends. It emphasizes that the friends belong to Mary specifically.

2. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary."

This sentence implies that Mary is the one who introduced the friends, but it does not necessarily imply that they are Mary's own friends.

The emphasis here is on the fact that Mary is the connection between the speaker and the friends.

In summary, both sentences are grammatically correct, but they subtly differ in terms of the ownership and relationship between Mary and the friends mentioned.

Try: "We had dinner with Mary and some of her friends."

I wouldn't use either of your choices.

 

[emsr2d2]

When can I use a Saxon genitive and no when can't I?

Hellow Hello. Next to I'm going two reflections from different points of view. (I don't understand what you're trying to say with the underlined sentence so I can't correct it.) I would like knowing to know if they are right. Thanks.

Both sentences are technically correct, but they convey slightly different meanings.

1. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary's."
This sentence suggests that Mary has friends, and the speaker had a meal with a specific group of those friends. It emphasizes that the friends belong to Mary specifically. That's correct.

2. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary."
This sentence implies that Mary is the one who introduced the friends, but it does not necessarily imply that they are Mary's own friends.
The emphasis here is on the fact that Mary is the connection between the speaker and the friends. That's incorrect.

In summary, both sentences are grammatically correct, but they subtly differ in terms of the ownership and relationship between Mary and the friends mentioned.

Please see my corrections and comments above.
I don't know where you got the idea that sentence #2 doesn't imply that they are Mary's friends. It literally says "some friends of Mary". It can't mean anything except that they are Mary's friends.

Bear in mind that native speakers probably wouldn't say either of them. We'd say "We had a nice meal with some of Mary's friends". The only thing that's unclear is whether Mary was at the meal. If she was, say "We had a nice meal with Mary and some of her friends".

 

[Tarheel]

I agree with @emsr2d2 but it seems extremely unlikely that we ate dinner (or whatever) with some of Mary's friends without Mary being there.

 

[stanislaw.masny]

I agree with Tarheel that it seems extremely unlikely but possible.

 

[jutfrank]

I think I see what's going on here.

1. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary's."

This sentence suggests that Mary has friends, and the speaker had a meal with a specific group of those friends. It emphasizes that the friends belong to Mary specifically.

Yes, that's all correct. This is an example of a Saxon genitive.

2. "We had a nice meal with some friends of Mary."

This sentence implies that Mary is the one who introduced the friends, but it does not necessarily imply that they are Mary's own friends.

The emphasis here is on the fact that Mary is the connection between the speaker and the friends.

In summary, both sentences are grammatically correct, but they subtly differ in terms of the ownership and relationship between Mary and the friends mentioned.

This is an AI answer, right? I think what it's saying is that since there is no genitive used, the connection between Mary and the friends is not possessive, but rather has a different, looser connection of association. There is some grounds for this kind of analysis, but it's really not very helpful in this particular context. I think most of the humans on the forum here will agree with me that it's extremely likely that in natural authentic speech, sentence 2 would have exactly the same meaning as sentence 1. Whether you'd consider that a grammatical error is another matter. I, for one, would.

To summarise: if you want to say that the people were Mary's friends, use sentence 1.

 

[jutfrank]

I agree with @emsr2d2 but it seems extremely unlikely that we ate dinner (or whatever) with some of Mary's friends without Mary being there.

I don't think it's extremely unlikely Mary wasn't there. In fact, that's exactly what the sentence is saying! Otherwise, the speaker would say something like We had a nice meal with Mary and some of her friends.

 

[Tarheel]

@jutfrank I agree that that's what the sentence says. However, imagine that I had lunch with some of your friends and you weren't there. According to what you said you wouldn't consider that to be the least but odd.

Come to think of it I had lunch with a bunch of Jack's friends the other day, and Jack wasn't there. (Not really.)

 

[jutfrank]

According to what you said you wouldn't consider that to be the least bit odd.

It's a bit odd, sure, but I don't find it that unusual. I'm imagining myself having lunch with some friends of a friend without the friend being there, and it doesn't feel very strange to me. In fact, I imagine I must have done this at some point in my life. Maybe we just differ in how we socialise.

Anyway, regardless, that is basically what the original sentence is suggesting, and whether Mary was there is irrelevant to the point in question.

 

[Tarheel]

I don't have that many friends. I wouldn't know what that's like.

 

[Eva Spain]

If we forget the fact of that Mary was or didn't at the meal:
Are two sentences correcta? Grammatically

Can you put here bibliography about It where It say that #2 sentence or similar is correct?

 

[jutfrank]

As I've said above, I take the view that sentence 2 is incorrect. I'd guess that's probably a minority opinion. I'd like to know what others think about this.

 

[Tarheel]

@Eva Spain Try:

Let's forget about whether Mary was at the meal or not.

And:

Are the two sentences grammatically correct? (That question has been answered already.)

I don't know what you're trying to say with the third one

Do you know what you need to work on? (Word choice, for one thing.)

 

[emsr2d2]

If we forget the fact of that about whether Mary was or didn't wasn't at the meal, are the two sentences correcta grammatically correct?

Can you put here bibliography about It where It say cite a source that says sentence #2 sentence or similar is correct?

Please note my corrections above. I mean no offence, but I think you need to improve your basic English sentence construction and grammar (and use of capital letters) before moving on to more complicated aspects of the language.

 

[SoothingDave]

As I've said above, I take the view that sentence 2 is incorrect. I'd guess that's probably a minority opinion. I'd like to know what others think about this.

I think sentence 2 is better and more natural. Adding an apostrophe at the end seems redundant.

 

[Eva Spain]

Please note my corrections above. I mean no offence, but I think you need to improve your basic English sentence construction and grammar (and use of capital letters) before moving on to more complicated aspects of the language.

Apart from I need improve my English expressions (I think so too), the sentences that I showed them were a lesson class exercise about which my teachers disagreed with each other. One of my teachers is Spanish and the other one English. The argumentation of one of them is what I have shown you.

You have helped me a lot. Thank you for the corrections.

 

[Tarheel]

@Eva Spain
Try:

I agree that I need to improve my English. The sentences I posted here are from a class exercise which my teachers disagreed with each other about. (One of them is Spanish and the other English. The comments are from one of them.)

I suggest that you put the corrections in a notebook. Also, if you keep your sentences short and simple you will be less likely to make errors.