possessive
Example Sentences
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Neill plays the awkward, ignorant Scottish farmer who arranges for a mail-order marriage with Holly Hunter’s mute pianist and then becomes possessive and driven to jealous despair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
With her husband so frequently absent, child-rearing fell almost entirely to Frances, who proved a loving but possessive mother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
The inquest has also heard that Gunner Beck received thousands of messages from another senior colleague, Bombardier Ryan Mason, whom she described as being "psychotic and possessive".
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2025
As it moved through TikTok and Instagram, the term focused solely on the plural possessive, as people jokingly addressed their intangible audiences.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2024
I knew how possessive Hannie was about her bicycle.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
I wrote “our sycamore” above, but great trees defy possessives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
His world, at least as related to the tiny mark that denotes possessives and the omission of letters from certain words, appears to be crashing down around him.
From Slate ● May 23, 2013
Booker Prize-winning author James Kelman uses apostrophes for possessives but not for contractions in his most recent work.
From Slate ● May 23, 2013
Of course, you can say the same thing without using any possessives: After waiting an hour in court, Butch was given two years of probation for stealing fifty dollars in change from the collection plate.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
For an acquisitive society, were awfully careless about possessives.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Vocabulary lists containing possessive
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Language and Grammar - Introductory
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