EnglishClub ESL Forums

1) a) I met another boyfriend of Lucy’s yesterday.
b) I met another boyfriend of Lucy yesterday.

2) a) He’s a cousin of the Queen’s.
b) He’s a cousin of the Queen.

Are these sentences interchangeable?
What's the difference between them?..

Only (1b) is not acceptable, since, regarding proper versus common nouns, the double-possessive construction tends to be obligatory only in the case of the former.