Genitive case

The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. In a more general sense, this genitive relationship may be thought of as one thing belonging to, being created from, or otherwise deriving from some other thing. (The relationship is usually expressed by the preposition of in English.) The term possessive case refers to a case that is similar, though usually more restricted in usage, to the genitive.

Related Topics:
Grammatical case - Possession - Noun - Possessive case

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Specific varieties of genitive relationships include:

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• origin ("men of Rome")
• composition ("wheel of cheese")
• part of a mass ("a pound of beef")
• number of distinct items (Old English "féower manna"; literally, "four of men")
• relationship ("Janet's husband")
• subjectivity ("my leaving")
• objectivity ("the archduke's murder")
• description ("man of honor", "day of reckoning")
• inalienable possession ("my height", "his existence", "her long fingers")
• alienable possession ("his jacket", "my drink")

The last two relationships are the most commonly expressed by the genitive.

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In some languages, nouns in the genitive case also agree in case with the nouns they modify (that is, the head noun is marked for two cases). This phenomenon is called suffixaufnahme.

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One form in which genitive cases may be found is inclusio.

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Many languages have a genitive case, including Lithuanian, Arabic, Latin, Irish, Georgian, Greek, German, Dutch, Russian, Finnish and Sanskrit. English does not have a proper genitive case, but a possessive ending, -'s (see below).

Related Topics:
Lithuanian - Arabic - Latin - Irish - Georgian - Greek - German - Dutch - Russian - Finnish - Sanskrit

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Genitive case: The English -'s ending ►