163. The formation of the possessive. The possessive is formed by adding -s to the nominative (but without apostrophe).
| S. | Pl. | |
| Nom. | Mand | Mænd. |
| Poss. | Mands | Mænds. |
When the noun has the postpositive definite article, the -s is added to the latter:
| Nom. | Manden | Mændene | Huset | Husene. |
| Poss. | Mandens | Mændenes | Husets | Husenes. |
Note 1. Nouns ending in s (z, x) form their possessive by adding es; Ex.: den lille Gaases Mening the opinion of that little goos. Paradues rindende Kilde the running fountain of Paradise; paa et forgyldt Paladses flade Tag on the flat roof of a guilt palace. But as a rule the possessive form of these words, except in the definite form, is avoided. Proper nouns ending in -s may have their possessive of same form as the nominative, only adding an apostrophe, or an s with preceding apostrophe may be added. Ex.: Sokrates’ of Socrates, Valders’s Fjelddale the mountain valleys of Valders. Biblical nouns are sometimes used with the Latin gen. form: Mose Lov Moses’ law, Pauli Breve St. Paul’s epistles.
Note 2. A prepositional complement following the noun which it determines is considered as one word with it and the possessive s is added to the complement: Kongen af Danmarks Brystsukker the king of Denmarks barley sugar (a kind of congh drops), Keiseren over alle Russeres Rige the realm of the Emperor of all Russians.
When several nouns are used to denote one person or thing only the last word gets the s: Kong Olavs Hær the army of king O.
Note 3 Some names of cities, especially those ending in a vowel, have their possessive (when employed as definitive genitive) like the nominative: Kristiania By, Kristiania Universitet etc. the city of Ch., the university of Ch., but Kristianias Indbyggere the inhabitants of Ch. In the same manner: Hamar Stift the diocese of H., Kallundborg By, Sorö Academi, Aalborg Skole the school of Aa., Kongsberg Sölvværk the silver mines of K. (but Bergens By, Trondhjems Domkirke the Cathedral of T. Kjöbenhavns Universitet the university of Copenhagen).
