Podcast: Mary’s and Jack’s cars

Podcast Inglês Online

How’s it going? Hoje eu falo sobre uma coisinha que todo mundo vê na aula de inglês básico: o possessive case (‘s). Mas é comum a gente aprender Mary’s car, John’s apple e por aí vai… Os casos em que mais de uma pessoa é “dona” não aparecem com tanta frequência no livro de inglês – e mesmo que apareçam, muita gente acaba não “pegando” por falta de input. Esse é o tema do nosso episódio de hoje – enjoy!

Transcrição

Hey, everyone! This is Ana with another episode of the Inglês Online podcast. How are you doing today?

So, listen to this: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside. Let me say that again: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside. What does that mean? That means that Mary owns a car, Jack owns a different car and both their cars are outside. So I’m focusing on the possessive case: it’s that way of expressing possession where we use an apostrophe and the letter S. Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside – each one of them has a car so I’m using one possessive for each: Mary’s and Jack’s cars are outside.

What would happen if… Let’s say a couple of people… Let’s say a husband and a wife – if they shared a car. If they had one car for both of them. Let’s say… Edward and Christine, ok? So, they have one car. Edward and Christine’s car is outside. I’m talking about one car and it belongs to both of them. Edward and Christine’s car is outside – and the order doesn’t matter, so I could say Christine and Edward’s car is outside. same thing.

Let me give you a few more examples of two people who have two different things. Let’s say I’m talking about two friends – Ted and Tina. One guy and one woman. They are friends – Ted and Tina.

Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends. Ted and Tina are friends, Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends too. So, Ted has a dog, Tina has a different dog and their dogs are friends. Ted’s and Tina’s dogs are friends.

Ted’s and Tina’s bicycles are inside. Ted and Tina rode their bikes somewhere… Let’s say to the ice cream shop and they brought their bikes inside. So Ted’s and Tina’s bikes are inside.

Karen’s and Christie’s dolls are very pretty. Karen is a little girl, Christie is another little girl, Karen and Christie are friends and each one of them has a very pretty doll. So I’m talking about both of their dolls… Karen’s and Christie’s dolls are very pretty.

Now, let’s talk about a couple of brothers that share lots of things. Let’s say they’re called Timmy and Johnny. Timmy and Johnny are brothers, they’re both eight years old and they share a bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue – they have only one bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue. Notice that the apostrophe and the letter S go after the second name, right? The last name. Timmy and Johnny’s bike is blue: it’s only one bike. Timmy and Johnny’s bedroom is very large. They share a bedroom and it’s a large bedroom. Timmy and Johnny’s bedroom is large, and finally… Timmy and Johnny’s mother is German – she came from Germany. So Timmy and Johnny’s mother is German.

Alright! These are my examples for today. I just wanted to go over these two ways of using the possessive case, because… In this way we’re covering a few examples that are not really necessarily present in books or they’re not very frequent, I think. And again, this is something I don’t hear a lot of students using correctly. I thought this would be a good opportunity to go over a few examples. Give it a listen. Get familiar with these ways of using the possessive case.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it and see you next time. Bye!

Key expressions

• Mary’s and Jack’s cars
• Possessive case

Vocabulary

Mary owns a car = Mary possui/tem um carro

rode = Passado do verbo ride e no texto significa pedalar/andar de bicicleta

bedroom = quarto de dormir

get familiar with = se familiarizar com algo