Saturday, November 7, 2015

Two possessive nouns in a row



Is this the proper way to use two possessive nouns in a row?




I am going over to Lauren's parents' house this evening.





or




The store's manager's niece was quite attractive.




What about three?*





The United States Army's general's wife's dog is on the lamb, somebody stop it.




*Three seems both unrealistic, and in the specific example I used you could make a case for adding a fourth United State's Army's but I think that seems even more unrealistic. Additionally, I would never write this in any sort of setting other than the purpose of knowing what the rules are.



Thanks in advance, I apologize in advance if this is duplicate


Answer



Yes, the first sentence is correct. Although I suspect parent's may be intended as plural here, in which case the apostrophe should be moved to be parents'. I suspect this because if the house belonged to one parent, you'd be more likely to write Lauren's mom's/dad's house.





"I am going over to Lauren's parents' house this evening."




The next two sentences can actually be simplified by removing one of the possessives.




"The store manager's niece was quite attractive."





Store manager is a title, so you don't have to use a possessive to describe the store's manager. The same goes for the army general:




"The US Army general's wife's dog is on the lamb. Somebody stop it."




(You also had a comma splice in there, which I've fixed.)



Disregarding the improvements to the second and third examples, the way you have used the multiple possessives is correct. However, it is best practice to try to reduce the number of consecutive possessives in a sentence if you can.


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