Everything English

Possessives are used to indicate ownership. The possessive forms of nouns indicate that something (the second of two nouns) belongs to (is possessed by) the noun in question.

For singular nouns (e.g. dog, girl, book) possessives are formed by adding an apostrophe and then an “s”, as in:

• The dog’s owner was away on vacation.
• We don’t know the girl’s name.
• The book’s chapters are all very interesting.

The possessive forms of plural nouns are formed in one of two ways. When the plural of the noun in question ends in “s” (e.g. dogs, girls, books), possessives are formed by adding an apostrophe after the “s”. No additional “s” is necessary. For example:

• The dogs’ owners were away on vacation.
• We don’t know the girls’ names.
• The books’ covers were difficult to tell apart.

When the plural of the noun in question does not end in “s” (e.g. children, women, people), possessives are formed by adding an apostrophe and then an “s”. For example:

• The children’s department features a variety of styles.
• Susan enrolled in the Women’s Studies Department.
• People’s thoughts are often not aligned with their actions.

When more than one noun possesses the same item (e.g. two people own a car together), only the second noun takes the possessive form, as in:

• The point of Ackerman and Tolson’s study was to highlight deficiencies in the literature.
• Jared and Claire’s dog looks like a mixed breed.
• I think Sue and Jim’s car would look better in blue.

However, when two or more nouns have possession of different forms of the same item, all nouns take the possessive, as in:

• The women’s, men’s, and children’s departments are on different floors.
• Sarah’s and Tiffany’s grades are vastly different.

Note that possessive adjectives (e.g. yours, ours, theirs, hers) need no apostrophe:

• This is yours?
• Ours were excellent seats.
• I thought it was theirs, but I wanted to be sure.
• When you bring hers, please also bring mine.