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The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case
Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject , of direct object, or of possession ....
 used to indicate a relationship of possession
Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possession the referent of the other....
. It is not the same as the genitive case
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.

See Possession (linguistics)
Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possession the referent of the other....
 for a survey of the different categories of possession distinguished in languages.

term "possessive case" is often used to refer to the "'s
Saxon genitive

"Saxon genitive" is the traditional term used for the ?s possessive clitic in the English language. In traditional grammar, it is considered a word-ending, or suffix....
" morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
, which is suffixed onto many nouns in English to denote possession.






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The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case
Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject , of direct object, or of possession ....
 used to indicate a relationship of possession
Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possession the referent of the other....
. It is not the same as the genitive case
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.

See Possession (linguistics)
Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possession the referent of the other....
 for a survey of the different categories of possession distinguished in languages.

The English possessive

The term "possessive case" is often used to refer to the "'s
Saxon genitive

"Saxon genitive" is the traditional term used for the ?s possessive clitic in the English language. In traditional grammar, it is considered a word-ending, or suffix....
" morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
, which is suffixed onto many nouns in English to denote possession. This categorization is arguably not strictly correct some grammarians contend that this affix
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
 is actually a clitic
Clitic

In linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonology dependent word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level....
. By descent, however, the English usage does stem from a case ending, Old English -es. See genitive case
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
 for details. For information on how to properly construct the possessive form, see Possessive apostrophe
Apostrophe

The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English it has two main functions: it marks omissions, and it assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns....
.

English Examples

Here are some examples of the Possessive case being applied in the English language
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
.

Nominative Case Possessive Case Example
child child's, of the child I have the child's bag
woman woman's, of the woman This is the woman's husband
car car's, of the car The car's wheels are off