5 exercises — using constructions like "a concern of Sarah's" and "a habit of this team's" to imply selection from a set in retrospectives, reviews, and meeting notes.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the double genitive to refer to one of several PRs opened by a colleague?
"I reviewed a PR of my colleague's" is the correct double genitive — combining "of" with the possessive 's. It is used specifically to indicate one of several — implying your colleague has multiple PRs, and you reviewed one of them. Compare with "I reviewed my colleague's PR", which implies (or at least doesn't rule out) they have only one relevant PR in context. Option A ("a PR of my colleague") drops the possessive 's, which is ungrammatical with a personal noun in this construction — "of" alone with a person's name needs the following 's to form the double genitive. Option C loses the possessive and singular-plural agreement. Option D awkwardly stacks "the" and a bare possessive without "of", which is not standard. Rule: "a/an/some/this + noun + of + possessive's" is the double genitive pattern, used to imply selection from a set.
2 / 5
A tech lead says: "That's a concern of Sarah's, not mine." What does the double genitive "a concern of Sarah's" specifically imply, versus saying "Sarah's concern"?
Option B is correct. The double genitive ("a concern of Sarah's") carries a partitive nuance — selecting one item from an implied larger set (Sarah's several concerns) — that the plain possessive ("Sarah's concern") doesn't necessarily convey. This distinction matters in meeting notes and design reviews where precision about whose objections exist, and how many, affects how the team prioritises follow-up. Option D is false — the double genitive works fine with abstract nouns like "concern," "idea," "objection," and "suggestion," not just concrete objects. Common technical examples: "a suggestion of the reviewer's", "an idea of the architect's", "a habit of that team's".
3 / 5
Which of these CANNOT take the double genitive construction, and why?
"A bug of the codebase's" is the odd one out — the double genitive strongly prefers animate or personified possessors (people, teams, or pronouns referring to people), not inanimate objects like "codebase". Native-sounding English would instead say "a bug in the codebase" (using "in", a locative preposition, not a genitive at all) rather than forcing a genitive relationship onto an inanimate technical object. Options A, C, and D are all standard: "a friend of the CTO's" (person), "an idea of hers" (possessive pronoun, itself a fixed double-genitive-style form), and "a repo of theirs" (possessive pronoun implying one repo among several they own) are all natural and correct. Rule of thumb: if the "owner" is a person, team, or personified group, the double genitive sounds natural; if the "owner" is an inanimate system or artifact, prefer a plain prepositional phrase like "in", "on", or "within".
4 / 5
Fill in the blank with the correct double genitive form: "That's a design pattern _____ I actually admire."
"Of his" is correct. When the possessor is expressed as a pronoun in the double genitive, it must take the possessive pronoun form (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs) — never the object pronoun ("him") or subject pronoun ("he"). "A design pattern of his" implies this is one of several design patterns associated with that person, and the speaker is singling this one out for admiration. Option A ("of him") incorrectly uses the object pronoun. Option C ("of he") incorrectly uses the subject pronoun — never grammatical after a preposition. Option D reverses the word order incorrectly; "his of" is not a valid English structure. Memory aid: the possessive pronoun in a double genitive always mirrors the 's form used with a full noun (Sarah's → hers, the CTO's → his), never the plain pronoun.
5 / 5
In a retrospective, someone says: "That's a habit of this team's that we should break — merging without a second reviewer." Is this an appropriate use of the double genitive, and why?
Option B is correct. Collective nouns referring to groups of people — team, company, department, committee — are treated as personified/animate enough to take the double genitive, because English readily attributes human-like qualities (habits, opinions, concerns) to organised groups of people. "A habit of this team's" implies the team has multiple habits, and this retrospective is calling out one specific one to address. Option A incorrectly treats "team" as purely inanimate like a codebase or server. Option C is false; "habit" combines naturally with this pattern ("a habit of hers," "a habit of the team's"). Option D drops the required possessive 's, making it ungrammatical. Retrospective tip: this construction is genuinely useful for naming one specific behaviour pattern among several without implying it's the team's only issue.
What will I practise in "The Double Genitive in Technical English — Grammar Exercise"?
Practise the double genitive (a concern of Sarah's, a habit of this team's) for precisely selecting one item from an implied set in retrospectives and reviews. 5 exercises.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 5 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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How is this different from reading an article on the same topic?
Articles explain grammar rules in prose; this exercise tests and reinforces those rules through active recall with immediate feedback — the two work best together.
Who writes these exercises?
Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.