Learn how to use "of" as a possessive
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Hello everyone! I’m your host, Kellie. How Did You Do on Your British University Exams? |
| John: Hey, I’m John and in this series, we’ll learn about British culture and have some fun at the same time. |
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn about using ‘of’ as a possessive and also a little bit about the British university system. |
| John: This conversation takes place between our main character, Lucy, a business student and her best friend Craig. |
| Kellie: They’re in Craig’s flat and are best friends so they’ll be speaking casually. |
| John: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lucy: Have you checked your exam results yet? |
| Craig: Yeah. I logged onto the portal of the University just before you arrived and found out my results. |
| Lucy: And?? I know you needed a good mark in the last exam to get the 2;1 you needed for the postgraduate course. Did you get it, or did those nights in the student union catch up with you? |
| Craig: No, I just missed it. I’ve been thinking the last few days and I don’t think I want to enrol on that course anyway; I’ve had enough of studying and think it’s time to start earning some money, like you’re planning on doing. |
| Lucy: You could always resit it? You’d graduate a year later, but you should be able to pick up the extra marks. |
| Craig: Nah. Time to face the real world and be a proper adult. Get a job, a mortgage… all of those boring responsibilities. |
| Lucy: You’re going to spend the next few years on the dole, aren’t you? |
| Craig: Probably. Were your results good? |
| Lucy: They’re enough for the graduate schemes I’ve been |
| looking at. Do you want to go to the pub to celebrate the end of our school life? |
| Craig: Sure! It’ll be good practise for my future years of doing nothing, and your years starting at the bottom for minimum wage. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: It seems that the British university system is quite different to the rest of the world. |
| John: Yeah, it is, although a few countries with close links to Britain use similar systems too. |
| Kellie: So, if I want the best jobs with the best companies and want to earn lots of money, I need to graduate with a First? |
| John: That’s correct! You’d better work hard though as only around 15% of students achieve a first. That percentage changes from degree to degree. Law has the lowest percentage of firsts. |
| Kellie: I never wanted to be a lawyer anyway! Maybe I’ll choose an easier degree. |
| John: A two-one is often good enough to be accepted onto most postgraduate, specialist degrees though, so don’t think that your world has ended if you don’t get that first. |
| Kellie: I think I might follow Craig’s advice and study in the student union. |
| John: That’s the easiest way to get a third! Although it’s a pass and you will still graduate with honours, it won’t be enough for most postgrad degrees. |
| Kellie: Okay. In that case, I think we’d better study some more, so let’s move onto the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is: |
| Kellie: portal [natural native speed] |
| John: website to check personal information |
| Kellie: portal [slowly - broken down by syllable] portal [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: student union [natural native speed] |
| John: informal name for the student bar |
| Kellie: student union [slowly - broken down by syllable] student union [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to miss [natural native speed] |
| John: to not get the result needed |
| Kellie: to miss [slowly - broken down by syllable] to miss [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to enrol [natural native speed] |
| John: to enter a school course |
| Kellie: to enrol [slowly - broken down by syllable] to enrol [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: had enough [natural native speed] |
| John: frustrated with the situation, reached the limit |
| Kellie: had enough [slowly - broken down by syllable] had enough [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to resit [natural native speed] |
| John: to take an exam for a second time |
| Kellie: to resit [slowly - broken down by syllable] to resit [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: real world [natural native speed] |
| John: informal term for life outside of the school system |
| Kellie: real world [slowly - broken down by syllable] real world [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: mortgage [natural native speed] |
| John: the loan used to buy a house |
| Kellie: mortgage [slowly - broken down by syllable] mortgage [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: on the dole [natural native speed] |
| John: informal term for being unemployed |
| Kellie: on the dole [slowly - broken down by syllable] on the dole [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: minimum wage [natural native speed] |
| John: amount employers must pay their employees – now |
| £6.19 per hour |
| Kellie: minimum wage [slowly - broken down by syllable] minimum wage [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kellie: Let’s start with the ‘real world’. |
| John: The ‘real world’ is that place where all of those boring adult things such as jobs, mortgages and responsibilities live. If you’re a student you can still have all of those things of course, but it’s university life that takes up the majority of your time. Being a student and living in the real world are two separate things, as Craig states when he says it’s time to stop being a student and head out into the real world instead. |
| Kellie: Would being ‘on the dole’ be considered part of the real world? That’s another of this |
| lesson’s phrases. |
| John: Yes, it would. Britain has a generous benefit system to help people out of work, and |
| calling it the dole, or saying that you are ‘on the dole’ is a very colloquial way of saying |
| that you’re unemployed. |
| Kellie: So it’s slang? |
| John: Yeah. You’d use it between friends or in more informal situations. It implies not only |
| being unemployed, but also taking benefits so it can be used in a negative way sometimes if the speaker does not agree with unemployment benefits. Lucy uses it in that manner, slightly, as she feels that Craig could do a lot more with himself than being on the dole. |
| Kellie: Sounds like a tricky phrase to use. |
| John: It relies a lot on context and tone, as does a lot of English! |
| Kellie: Can you give us some examples? |
| John: Sure! If you say “I’m on the dole” to refer to yourself, then it simply means that you’re |
| unemployed and claiming unemployment benefits. You’d say that to friends or people in a casual setting such as a pub. If you say “he’s on the dole” to refer to someone else it does mean the same, but if it’s said with a tone of disapproval then it’s a criticism as well as a statement. |
| Kellie: Ah, I understand! Right, let’s see this lesson’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use ‘of’ as a possessive. |
| John: Craig said “the portal of the University”, meaning that the portal belongs to the Uni. It functions in a similar way to using an apostrophe ‘s’, as in ‘Harry’s football’ or ‘the school’s results’. It indicates that something belongs to someone, or something else. |
| Kellie: But ‘of’ and ‘s’ aren’t interchangeable, are they? |
| John: No, they aren’t. You can say ‘over there is Harry’s football’ but ‘over there is the football of Harry’ sounds weird and is grammatically wrong. |
| Kellie: Could you say “the parents were happy with the school’s results” as well as “the parents were happy with the results of the school?” |
| John: Yeah, that example is fine. |
| Kellie: What’s the difference? Why was your example wrong and mine right? |
| John: Because it depends on whether the owner is animate or inanimate. Whether it is a living thing such as a person, or a non-living thing such as a school or a building. |
| Kellie: So we can never use ‘of’ with animate, living owners? |
| John: You can’t use ‘of’ to describe animate things, so you can’t say that “you like the pretty eyes of Lisa”. |
| Kellie: I’d have to say that “I like Lisa’s pretty eyes”? |
| John: You got it! You also couldn’t use it to say what belongs to Lisa. “This is the CD of Lisa” sounds more like it’s a CD that Lisa has made, as if she’s a recording artist, than something she owns. |
| Kellie: “This is Lisa’s CD” would be correct? |
| John: Yep. |
| Kellie: So we never use ‘of’ with animate, living things. Got it. |
| John: Ahh, but this is the English language we’re talking about so you know that there has to be an exception to the rule. |
| Kellie: I was hoping there wouldn’t be this time. |
| John: You can use it to describe a person’s action. It sounds slightly more formal than using an ‘s’, but it’s perfectly fine. |
| Kellie: Ok. Give us an example. |
| John: It was my friend’s birthday last week and we went to a restaurant that she chose. So, I can say that “where we ate was Stacey’s decision”. But, I can also say that “where we ate was the decision of Stacey.” Both are fine. |
| Kellie: Ah, because ‘to decide’ is an action, a verb, we can use either ‘of’ or ‘s’? |
| John: Yep. The lesson notes have more examples so be sure to check them out. |
Outro |
| Kellie: Okay, that’s all for this lesson so be sure to come back next time for Lesson 2. Until then! |
| John: Bye, everyone! |
Comments
Hide