apostrophes

Before you learned about the possessive adjectives my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. They are used to show possession over something or someone. You can also use possessives with ‘s and s’ to show possession.^[1]https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/forming-possessive/

How to form possessives

Possessives are formed by adding apostrophe + s after a noun that doesn’t end in “s”.

For example:

• The house of Michael = Michael’s house (this means Michael owns the house)
• The car of the company = the company’s car (this means that the company owns the car)
• Clothes for women = women’s clothes (this is talking about clothing for females in general)
• The yard of the neighbor = the neighbor’s yard (this means that the neighbor owns the yard)

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if the noun is singular or plural to add ‘s. If the noun doesn’t end in the letter “s”, then you must add ‘s to the end of the word to make it possessive.

The possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe after a noun that already ends in “s”.

For example:

• The book of Thomas = Thomas’ book (this means that Thomas owns a book)
• The children of the parents = the parents’ children (this means that there are many parents how have children)
• The toys of the dogs = the dogs’ toys (this means that there are several dogs who have several toys)

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if the noun is singular or plural to add s’. If the noun already ends in the letter “s”, than you need to add the apostrophe after it.

Proper Pronunciation

When using either ‘s or s’, you need to make sure you are properly pronouncing the word, so that other people understand you are using the possessive when talking.

In both cases, the sound is a “z” sound.

In other words, you would pronounce “Bob’s” as Bobz

Expressions of Time

• a day’s work
• today’s news
• in a month’s time
• a year’s pay

Practice Exercises

Convert the following sentences to the possessive using either ‘s or s’.