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Hi! I think it should be " garden of tycoon's". Am I wrong?Police dig up garden of tycoon arrested over murder of wife who vanished nine years ago
Thank you!![]()
Police dig up (the) garden of (the) tycoon arrested over (the) murder of (his) wife who vanished nine years ago.
I imagine that this is a newspaper headline. They often omit articles etc. to make the text shorter and more "punchy".![]()
Allow me to add more words for clarity:
The police dig up (the) garden of (the) tycoon who was arrested over (the) murder of (his) wife who vanished nine years ago.
Hello All,
Thank you for your responses! I am sorry that I didn't make my question clear enough.
Yes, it is a title for a piece of news. But my question is I think there's should be an apostrophe and a "s" behind "tycoon".
eg1
a friend of my father's (correct)
a friend of my father (wrong)
eg2
a few classmates of Tom's (correct)
a few classmates of Tom (wrong)
Any other suggestions? Thank you!![]()
Last edited by thedaffodils; 18-Jun-2008 at 16:58. Reason: newspaper->news(typo)
No. As indicated, the headline has truncated the grammar.
It has to be the way it is as "tycoon" is qualified by "arrested over murder": "garden of [the] tycoon [who has been/who was] arrested over..."
As to the possessive: garden of tycoon = tycoon's garden - but not garden of tycoon's
The section on the double possessive in this link is worth reading [it is towards the end of the page] : Possessive Forms
Hi Anglika,
Thank you very much.I understood the usage of double possessive according to the URL link you recommended. But I don't really understand you about the following explanation.
IMO,garden of tycoon = tycoon's garden - but not garden of tycoon's
tycoon's garden = the garden of tycoon's
tycoon's garden =/= the garden of tycoon
my father's picture = a picture of my father's
my father's picture=/= the picture of my father (which means the picture bears my father's image)
Any advice again? Thank you!
Last edited by thedaffodils; 19-Jun-2008 at 06:07. Reason: understand (grammatical error)
thank you anglika
It's one of those curious structures that is really hard to get hold of!
Generally, what follows the "of" in a double possessive will be definite and human, not otherwise, so we would say "a friend of my uncle's".
What precedes the "of" is usually indefinite (a friend, not the best friend), unless it's preceded by the demonstratives this or that, as in "this friend of my father's".
All the following are acceptable sentences.
The tycoon's garden has been dug up.
The garden of the tycoon has been dug up.
That garden of the tycoon's has been dug up.
A garden of the tycoon's has been dug up
Dear Anglika,
Thank you for shedding the daylight of the UK on me. I think I understood now.
Have a good one!
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