شوف الفرق
Each of these four phrases (listed in Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct) has a distinct meaning:- My sister's friend's investments (the investments belonging to a friend of my sister)
- My sister's friends' investments (the investments belonging to several friends of my sister)
- My sisters' friend's investments (the investments belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)
- My sisters' friends' investments (the investments belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)
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Kingsley Amis, on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with: - Those things over there are my husband's. (Those things over there belong to my husband.)
- Those things over there are my husbands'. (Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine.)
- Those things over there are my husbands. (I'm married to those men over there.)[13]
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