Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use genitive in a sentence

10 example sentences · adjective, noun

Genitive means of a grammatical case: in an inflected language (such as Greek or Latin), expressing that a thing denoted by a word is related to a thing denoted by another word as its origin or possessor; and in an uninflected language (such as English), expressing origin or possession; possessive. Example: “The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.”

Examples of genitive by meaning

adjectiveOf a grammatical case: in an inflected language (such as Greek or Latin), expressing that a thing denoted by a word is...

  • The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.
  • Two kinds of genitive: All nouns have a genitive form, but pronouns have two of them.2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, pages 38-39

More sentences with genitive

  • This verb takes the dative; that verb takes the genitive.From the entry take
  • In Latin, 'amicus' belongs to the second declension. Most second-declension nouns end in '-i' in the genitive singular and '-um' in the accusative singular.From the entry declension
  • Thus genitives are object patterners while the nouns they modify are verb patterners.1995, Joachim Jacobs, Syntax, page 1052. From the entry patterner
  • The strict rule of the genitive anticipation in the Altaic languages originated on the basis of the suffixlessness of the genitive.1978, Karl H. Menges, “Problems of Tungus Linguistics”, in Anthropos, volume 73, number 3/4, St. Augustin: Anthropos Institute, →JSTOR…. From the entry suffixlessness
  • But this latter phrase should be construed in the objective genitive as well, to reveal Morrow's perhaps unwitting testimony to Plato's hylomorphic stance.2001, John Protevi, Political Physics: Deleuze, Derrida, and the Body Politic. From the entry hylomorphic
  • In very early times a man seems to have been known by a single name together with his father's name in the genitive case, e.g.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon…. From the entry genitive case
  • The same holds for aspect languages such as Gothic, Old English, Old High German, or Finnish, where case is used to aspectualize verbs (partitive vs. genitive).2008, Werner Abraham, Elisabeth Leiss, Modality Aspect Interfaces, page 32. From the entry aspectualize
  • It will be observed that the forms in s- occur only in the nominative and that the genitive forms are coradicate with the nominative form neuter.1907, Allison Emery Drake, Discoveries in Hebrew, Gaelic, Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Basque and other Caucasic languages. From the entry coradicate

Meaning of genitive

  1. adjective Of a grammatical case: in an inflected language (such as Greek or Latin), expressing that a thing denoted by a word is related to a thing denoted by another word as its origin or possessor; and in an uninflected language (such as English), expressing origin or possession; possessive.
  2. adjective Of, pertaining to, or used in the genitive case.
  3. adjective Of or pertaining to the generation of offspring; generative, procreative, reproductive.

Full definition of genitive

Questions about genitive in a sentence

How do you use genitive in a sentence?
Genitive is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The student who had taken a German exam realised his error afterwards. He had used the dative case instead of the genitive case to show possession.”
What is a short sentence with genitive?
“This verb takes the dative; that verb takes the genitive.”
What does genitive mean?
Genitive means of a grammatical case: in an inflected language (such as Greek or Latin), expressing that a thing denoted by a word is related to a thing denoted by another word as its origin or possessor; and in an uninflected language (such as English), expressing origin or possession; possessive.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: genitive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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