Grocery Shop suppliers! Noun possessives.

[saloom2]

Hello Everyone,

I am a bit confused about possessives:

1- It's 'Grocery shop suppliers' or 'Grocery shop suppliers'
2-It's 'university prom' or 'University's prom'
3-It's kitchen clock or kitchen's clock

And why cause I cannot find any rule or anything to help me deploy possessives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello Everyone,

I am a bit confused about possessives:

1- [STRIKE]It's[/STRIKE] Is it 'Grocery shop suppliers' or 'Grocery shop suppliers'?
2- [STRIKE]It's[/STRIKE] Is it 'university prom' or 'university's prom'?
3- [STRIKE]It's[/STRIKE] Is it 'kitchen clock' or 'kitchen's clock'?

And why [STRIKE]cause[/STRIKE] can't I [STRIKE]cannot[/STRIKE] find any rule or anything to help me deploy possessives.

Thanks in advance.

1 - Grocery shop suppliers
2 - University prom
3 - Kitchen clock

What you need to remember, generally, about possessives is that they denote exactly that - possession. A kitchen is a room in your house. It cannot really "possess" anything. The clock does not belong to the kitchen. The kitchen does not possess or own the clock.

A kitchen clock is a clock which is designed to be hung/stood in the kitchen.

"My mother's kitchen clock is blue" - I am not telling you that there is a blue clock which belongs to my mother's kitchen. I am telling you that there is a blue kitchen clock which belongs to my mother.

 

[saloom2]

Well, what about Grocery shop suppliers, should it be 'Grocery shop's suppliers'? Grocery's has its own suppliers, I should use possessive, shouldn't I?

 

[5jj]

Well, what about Grocery shop suppliers, should it be 'Grocery shop's suppliers'? Grocery's has its own suppliers, I should use possessive, shouldn't I?

You could have "the grocery shop's suppliers", "the grocer's shop", "the grocer's suppliers" or, I suppose, "the grocer's shop's suppliers". We could also have "the grocery shop suppliers". There are probably other possible combinations, but most of us don't worry too much - we don't often have to speak of those who supply goods to the grocers/grocer's/grocery shops.

Indeed, in these days of supermarkets, mini-markets and convenience stores, few of us use the word grocer any more.

 

[saloom2]

I was not asking about that the-grocery-shop thing. What I asked for is the idea of using the possessives. it's kinda weird, since it has no rule. And in my writing, I can't use it correctly. So being a native speaker, which one is the most natural? and why?

Thanks in advance.

 

[emsr2d2]

Have you actually read any of the responses?

For a start, in your original post, your first question (I assumed it was a question, despite the lack of question mark and the incorrect word order) asked "It's 'grocery shop suppliers' or 'grocery shop suppliers'
I'm not sure how you expected any of us to choose between those two as they are absolutely identical.

The next two examples contained one possessive construction and one non-possessive construction. In my first response, I explained about the use of possessives.

I will have to go back to "the grocery-shop thing" as you put it, as it helps to explain. In my opinion, the most natural is "grocery shop suppliers". They are suppliers "to" a grocery shop, not suppliers "of" a grocery shop. No possession is involved.

As I indicated in post #2, the standard construction for your three examples would not involve the possessive. If that is not your question, then I don't know what your question is.

 

[saloom2]

No, It's much clearer now. Thank you so much.