Monday, August 27, 2018

grammar - Double possessive: a friend of Steven's

I am wondering about the "double possessive" I have been reading about.



I have a couple of sentences as an example:



He’s a new client of Jane and Kevin’s and a close childhood friend of Steven O’Neill’s.



I thought that the above sentence was correct, because it sounds natural to use the apostrophe S to me, in the same way that we say "he's a friend of mine."



However, I have heard people criticize sentences such as that one above as having a "double possessive" because of the OF as well as the apostrophe S.




Is the above sentence correct or should it be:



He’s a new client of Jane and Kevin and a close childhood friend of Steven O’Neill.



Thank you - any help would be greatly appreciated.

No comments:

Post a Comment