in meaning from six of my hats). See English determiners for more details. A possessive adjective can be intensified with the word own, which can itself be either an adjective or a pronoun: my own (bed), John's own (bed). In some expressions the possessive has itself taken on the role of a noun modifier, as in cow's milk (used rather than cow milk). It then no longer functions as a determiner; adjectives and determiners can be placed before it, as in the warm cow's milk, where idiomatically the and warm now refer to the milk, not to the cow. Possessive relationships can also be expressed periphrastically, by preceding the noun or noun phrase with the preposition of, although possessives are usually more idiomatic where a true relationship of possession is involved. Some examples: the child's bag might also be expressed as the bag of the child our cats' mother might be expressed as the mother of our cats the system's failure might be expressed as the failure of the system Another alternative in the last case may be the system failure, using system as a noun adjunct rather than a possessive – this is common when the possessor is more abstract in character. As pronouns Possessives can also play the role of nouns or pronouns; namely they can stand alone as a noun phrase, without qualifying a noun. In this role they can function as the subject or object of verbs, or as a complement of prepositions. When a form corresponding to a personal pronoun is used in this role, the correct form must be used, as described above (mine rather than my, etc.). Examples: I'll do my work, and you do yours. (here yours is a possessive pronoun, meaning "your work", and standing as the object of the verb do) My car is old, Mary's is new. (here Mary's means "Mary's car" and stands as the subject of its clause) Your house is nice, but I prefer to stay in mine. (here mine means "my house", and is the complement of the preposition in) Double genitive The genitive can be combined with an of construction to produce what is often called a double genitive, as in the following examples: that hard heart of thine (Venus and Adonis, line 500) this extreme exactness of his (Sterne, Tristram Shandy, chapter 1.IV) that poor mother of mine (Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, chapter I)