CMOS | On Writing

“In English, only nouns and pronouns have case.”

“English nouns have no true gender, as that property is understood in many other languages. Most English nouns may refer to either sex.”

 “Names of companies, institutions, and similar entities are generally treated as collective nouns—and hence singular in American English, even when they are plural in form.”

“Some nouns have only a singular form, and some exist only as plurals.”

“A noun or pronoun that follows a be-verb and refers to the same thing as the subject is called a predicate nominative.”

“A noun in an objective function usually follows the verb. . . . But with an inverted construction, the object can appear elsewhere in the sentence.”

“A noun serving an objective function is never the subject of the following verb and usually does not control the number of the verb.”

“The genitive case is also called the possessive case, but possessive is a misleadingly narrow term, given the seven different functions of this case—true possession, as ordinarily understood, being only one.”

The genitive of a singular noun is formed by adding -’s {driver’s seat} {engineer’s opinion}.”

“The genitive of a plural noun that ends in -s or -es is formed by adding an apostrophe {parents’ house} {foxes’ den}.”

“The genitive of an irregular plural noun is formed by adding -’s {women’s rights} {mice’s cage}.”

The genitive of a compound noun is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the last word in the compound {parents-in-law’s message}.”

“Proper nouns and nouns denoting people or things of higher status usually take the inflected genitive {Hilda’s adventures} {the lion’s paw}. Compare the perils of Penelope with the saucer of the chef. Nouns denoting inanimate things can often readily take either the inflected form or the of-genitive {the theater’s name} {the name of the theater}.”

“The of-genitive is also useful when a double genitive is called for—using both of and a possessive form {an idea of Hill’s} {a friend of my grandfather’s}.”

“If two or more nouns share possession, the last noun takes the genitive ending. (This is called joint or group possession.) For example, Peter and Harriet’s correspondence refers to the correspondence between Peter and Harriet.”

If two or more nouns possess something separately, each noun takes its own genitive ending. For example, Peter’s and Harriet’s correspondence refers to Peter’s correspondence and also to Harriet’s correspondence, presumably with all sorts of people.”

“If a noun and a pronoun are used to express joint possession, both the noun and the pronoun must show possession. For example, Hilda and Eddie’s vacation becomes (when Eddie has already been mentioned) Hilda’s and his vacation or (if Eddie is speaking in first person) Hilda’s and my vacation.”

“Commas frame an appositive unless it is restrictive {Robert Burns, the poet, wrote many songs about women named Mary [here, poet is a nonrestrictive appositive noun]} {the poet Robert Burns wrote many songs about women named Mary [Robert Burns restricts poet by precisely identifying which poet]}.”

Credit The Chicago Manual of Style