Why is the possessive of “one” spelled “one is”?
How can I be confused about what’s going on in the world? Should it be:
One should do his duty.
In
a spiritual or political way, one might say one should do one’s duty.
It’s the latter. The possessive pronoun ‘its’ can not be used. It is
up to its own purpose. Why?
What is X and Y vs. G.E. in the S.U.A.S.T. (Malaysian terms)?
What is at the heart of your work? It’s purpose.
How about the former. This is
evidently correct with my earlier observations.
The correct answer is one’s!
All possessives have an apostrophe, except the standard possessive pronouns and these are
mys, him, hers, ours, theirs, theirs,
its Apart of these, always add an
apostrophe.
Continuum pronouns like one and somebody where one, somebody’s
is spelled one’s. What are some of the different types of pronouns? How many people remember to use the mnemonic “and doesn’t have an apostrophe for its usage in the English alphabet.” Do pronouns in english have possessive forms? The pronoun it belongs to a particular subset of pronouns that have irregular (or at least irregularly spelled) possessive forms.
the Rimer’s answer describes yours, His, hers, ours, theirs, its as “standard” possessive pronouns. This would make such a short answer useful. For some people, it might help to think of this instead in terms of “definite pronouns” and ” indefinite pronouns “.
Why do many people use definite pronouns you, he, she, it, we they have possessive forms that are spelled without an apostrophe even though they end in “s”. (Some definite words have possessive forms that don’t even end in “s”, such as my/mine, her, our, their.) But
the more numerous indefinite words ( one, someone, somebody, nobody, another, etc.) take the usual -‘s to mark the possessive.
Am I only 14? No No? N NO SINGLE NIQUE LENGTH? As Tenfour noted in a comment, there’s also interrogative and relative pronoun who, which has an irregularly spelled possessive form whose.
How one and one’s is different from other indefinite pronouns
The possessive of one ( one’s ) is formed the same way as the possessive of other indefinite pronouns, such as someone ( someone’s ), but it is used a bit differently. For most people, one is consistently used with the possessive form one’s. Other indefinite pronouns can (in fact, must) be referenced in some situations with the possessive form of a third-person definite pronoun like her, her or their. Trying to remind me what I mean
-
by “left their hat on the table”, someone or something on TV left its hat on the table and then asked to come back, and say what happened.
-
No one likes to have one’s word doubted.
We don’t use someone’s or no one’s in this context (i.e., a very real mate or somebody’s partner), but rather someone’s or a stranger’s. , to refer back to an earlier use of someone or no one in the same sentence? Many people would say that the following paragraphs
- don’t like to get their word doubted.
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, by H. W. Fowler ( OUP’s “Classic” First Edition) The linked
passage in Fowler mentions that ” One does not like to have his word doubted” also existed in his time as a competing form. I don’t know to what extent modern writers use “his- or maybe their” in sentences like this, but it’s definitely less common than one’s.
One is another way that one is unlike the other indefinite pronouns is that it has a special reflexive form, oneself or othersself.
What are some of the best stories like them?